Peel Island, Cumbria

[2] It is most famous for being one of the inspirations for Arthur Ransome's Wild Cat Island.

[3] Peel Island has belonged to the National Trust since it was given to them by John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, along with 11 acres (4.5 ha) of woodland, in 1932.

[2] Taqui Altounyan, sister of Roger Altounyan and inspiration for one of the characters in Swallows and Amazons, described Peel Island in her autobiography In Aleppo Once[5] as "like a green tuffet, sitting in the water, the trees covering the rocks".

[6][7] The island also features in W. G. Collingwood's novel Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland.

Ransome, at the age of eight, first met the Collingwoods at a family picnic on Peel Island: a chance meeting that would prove to have important consequences in Ransome's later life, with Collingwood's grandchildren providing a model for significant characters in Swallows and Amazons.