‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake’. It’s one of the most memorable lines from a classic British film that is stuffed full of memorable lines. Put two Withnail and I fans together and you’ll likely hear many more quotable parts of the screenplay. The line is uttered by Richard E. Grant’s Withnail when filming on location in the Lake District, where the 18th century Sleddale Hall doubled as ‘Crow Cragg’, their ‘holiday’ home where much of the action is centred.
A melancholic masterpiece charting the story of two unemployed actors whose lives are spiralling out of control in a fug of alcohol and drug use. Withnail and I is often hilarious, but the comedy all too frequently comes soaked in despair, as a cast of miscreants and misfits navigate the dog days of 1960s London. As drug dealer Danny says, “London is a country coming down from its trip . . . and there’s gonna be a lot of refugees.”
While set in the 1960s, the film was released in 1987 and seems more a commentary on Thatcherite Britain. As their lives reach a crisis point, Paul McGann’s I has a moment of clarity: “What we need is harmony, fresh air, stuff like that.” They leave London to the sounds of Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower and go to the Lake District to stay at Crow Cragg, a farmhouse owned by Withnail’s uncle Monty (the fabulous Richard Griffiths).
On a wild and windy autumn day, when the cloud seemed to merge with the landscape, I set off to find Crow Cragg and visit a bit of cinematic history. It’s found on a hillside in the remote Wet Sleddale valley. A place that could only be described as ‘bleak’ on the day I visited, it was the perfect backdrop for the film. Withnail and I arrive at the farmhouse in their battered old Jaguar in torrential rain. I was luckier, the rain held off.
The fells around this area are boggy and windswept, and little visited compared to the honeypots of the central Lake District. It is though, very beautiful and comes with the added benefit that you can walk for hours across open country without seeing another human being. I saw only two people during a five hour walk and one was a local farmer. In the film, there is a famous encounter with ‘the’ farmer and a ‘randy’ bull.
Scenes from the film were playing in my mind as I set off from Wet Sleddale reservoir and headed down the valley. I could see Sleddale Hall across the other side of the valley as I made my way along the water’s edge. I crossed a small river and it was a steep climb up to the farmhouse. For many years it was abandoned and dilapidated, but someone has renovated it and seems to be living there – they even had a Jaguar car parked behind the house.
There was a stile that gave access to the side of the buildings so you can see the setting of the film more clearly. I carried on my climb upwards towards a hill top called Seat Robert, the views back across Wet Sleddale and the house were splendid. I soon lost sight of the valley and found myself walking across open fell towards Glede Howe and Outlaw Crag. On a better day, the views to the central Lakes and the North Pennines would have been magnificent.
I descended into Swindale, a secluded valley carved during the last Ice Age and home to a few small farms. Accompanied only by the breeze, I following Swindale Beck along the valley floor. Two hundred years ago the river was ‘tamed’ by straightening it to create pastureland. Today, it has been returned to its original route curving down the valley. The result is that salmon now spawn in the river and wildlife, including otters, has returned.
I passed by the tiny village of Keld en route to Wet Sleddale, before going to the nearby village of Bampton. It’s the location for another well-known scene from Withnail and I, in which Withnail calls his agent from the red public phone box in the village. It’s also home to the Mardale Inn. This 150-year old pub was threatened with closure but was bought by the local community. It’s now run as a cozy community pub, restaurant and hotel.
The phone box still has a working phone, but it has been turned into a memorial to the film. There are unofficial visitors books, in which people have jotted down their fondness for the film and their favourite quotes from the script. I read through some of the comments and, inspired by another Withnail quote (“Honestly. I’ve only had a few ales”), I headed to the Mardale Inn for a well deserved pint.
