I live in Britain’s loneliest house… nearest neighbours are 25mins drive & it’s an hour to Aldi but I love living here

WHEN Sue Edwards needs to popular retired for a pint of milk, she faces a mammoth hike oregon a treacherous thrust to the nearest shop.

The 49-year-old lives successful Britain’s astir distant home, with canine Jura for institution and hardly immoderate ­electricity, fto unsocial loads of tech.

She holds the keys to Skiddaw House, 1,550ft up successful the bosom of the Lake District.

It is 3.5 miles from the nearest roadworthy and, if she indispensable drive, it has to beryllium by 4x4 — and lone erstwhile the weather hasn’t made the onshore impassable.

The hostel is wholly off-grid, utilizing star panels to make its energy and a adjacent spring for its drinking water.

Sue, who has ne'er heard of Love Island, has been surviving and moving a hostel determination for the past 2 and a fractional years, with conscionable 10mb of wifi information a month.

“I’m watching the TV bid 24 connected DVD astatine the moment,” she tells maine implicit a campfire outside.

“I don’t person capable information for Netflix.

“But it suits me.

“I emotion being distant from technology.

'Full-on expedition'

“I bash person Whats­App and the quality to digitally communicate, though radical volition nonstop maine a small gif oregon video, and I’ll beryllium like, ‘Please stop! It’s pulling astatine my internet’.”

Sue opens Skiddaw House arsenic a hostel each play successful the summer, and uses her time disconnected each Tuesday to banal up connected the week’s groceries.

While astir cars aren’t capable to get anyplace adjacent the house, Sue has had her conveyance installed with “grabbers”, peculiar tyres that tin header with mud, snow and sand.

But with a long, steep and rocky 50-minute thrust down the elevation to her nearest Aldi successful Cockermouth, it is simply a full-on expedition to spell retired for essentials.

She says: “In the beginning, determination would beryllium times erstwhile I got location and realised I’d forgotten bin bags oregon something, but I’ve got the store down to a good creation now.”

Despite her debased mileage, Sue’s car has inactive had 3 punctures successful astir 3 years — and getting assistance is hard arsenic her nearest neighbours astatine Dash Farm are a 25-minute thrust distant and mobile phone reception is patchy.

She says: “Honestly, it’s a existent symptom successful the a**e, particularly if it happens connected the different broadside of the gates.

“There’s nary awesome there, truthful past I person to tally backmost up present to get a signal, oregon tally to the Dash.

“Then it’s the mechanic who looks aft the generators, Dave, who’ll travel and look astatine it.

“I’ve tried to bash it myself and I can’t adjacent get the instrumentality nuts off.”

Sue grew up successful Lincolnshire, arsenic the girl of a farmer, but ne'er wanted to travel successful his footsteps.

“Ironically, I retrieve astatine 14 oregon 15, deciding it was excessively lonely a life,” she says with a laugh.

After 3 years arsenic a PE teacher successful Slough, Sue made her mode into moving successful hostels, and was based astatine 1 successful Portishead, Somerset, erstwhile Skiddaw House fell into her lap.

The erstwhile wardens had a baby, and their lease was coming to an end, truthful they advertised connected social media, and Sue responded.

She says: “I was successful a spot wherever I thought, ‘I’d emotion to travel up the hill’.”

Her lone interest was whether she would beryllium capable to negociate everything connected her own.

She explains: “I wasn’t disquieted astir surviving connected my own.

“It’s conscionable you sometimes request to spell and get a contractor.

“Can 1 idiosyncratic bash it all?

“But the erstwhile mates ran it for six years together, and they some said they’d bash it again connected their own.

“So that was capable for me.

“I emotion it.

“I mean, I conscionable emotion it.

“It’s a privilege.”

Skiddaw House was built astir 1829 arsenic a keeper’s lodge and grouse shooting basal for George Wyndham, the 3rd Earl of Egremont.

The gathering was primitively divided into 2 dwellings — 1 for the gamekeeper and his household and the different for a shepherd’s family.

This associated usage continued until 1957 erstwhile the Leconfield Estate was breached up and Skiddaw House, with its associated grazing lands, was sold to a section farmer.

The 2 nonmigratory families left, but a shepherd, Pearson Dalton, stayed connected to enactment for the farmer.

For 12 years helium lived successful the house, with lone his goats, feline and 5 dogs arsenic company.

And, portion Sue says she could not bash what Pearson did, “as appealing arsenic it sounds to unrecorded similar a hermit,” she insists she ne'er gets lonely.

She says: “It’s really truly nice.

“In the mediate of the day, I usually get clip off, and I tin spell for a jog, oregon if it’s a bedewed day, read, and past I’m backmost connected astatine 5pm to unfastened up and invited guests.

‘Midlife crisis’

“It’s taken rather a portion to realise that I rather bask the location.

“I emotion the intent of it, of surviving up present and having a distant spot to live, and determination are ever guests.”

When the winter draws in, Sue closes the hostel, leaving the spot disposable for backstage hire.

With Jura successful tow, Sue heads implicit to York, wherever she has her ain place.

She spends her clip disconnected seeing friends for coffee, but truly wants to conscionable drawback up connected the Netflix shows she has not been capable to see.

But on-demand TV isn’t capable to get Sue down from the elevation conscionable yet.

She adds: “I’ve got 2 and a fractional years near connected my lease, and possibly astatine the extremity of that, I’ll beryllium thinking, ‘You cognize what? I conscionable privation to spell determination and get a cheesecake down the road, oregon person much contact.

“Maybe successful 10 years’ time, with a midlife crisis, I’ll fto you know.

“For now, I couldn’t ideate being anyplace else.”