Wasdale Head Inn

Wasdale Head Inn is a remote roadside refuge in Wasdale, a secluded part of western Cumbria among the highest mountains. During Laura and Tyler’s flight north, the inn offers a place to stop and hide; the stark landscape around it and Tyler’s sudden departure at daybreak make it a temporary shelter rather than a secure destination.

Setting and Approach

The inn stands at the end of a dirt road. Tyler’s car shudders over a cattle-grid before taking the final stretch of track, with green ferns on one side and the dark depths of Wastwater on the other. Scree-covered slopes loom behind the lake, their grey rocks and pale bushes described as if the mountainside were slowly sliding into the water. Small waves mark the lake’s surface, and a flock of grey Herdwick sheep watches the passing car. The inn itself comes into view as a white building bearing the large black word INN.

The Stop and Departure

At the inn, Laura drinks six whiskies over two hours and becomes wake-drunk: she slurs a word, falls in the bathroom and drops her drink. Treating these mishaps as three strikes, she stops drinking, goes outside to urinate and heads to bed. Tyler gives Larry’s belt a firm tug before following her toward the door, an episode that lends the stop a note of irreverent, improvised camaraderie.

The next morning, Laura wakes to find the other twin bed still made and Tyler missing. After missing breakfast, she packs and waits by the car. A door bangs, and Tyler runs out from around the side of the inn. Her black eye is back and her hair looks haunted; without explaining what has happened, she throws her hold-all into the back, hurries to the driver’s side and starts the engine. The abrupt exit leaves the inn as a brief pause in their flight, not its resolution.