Visitors to a campsite booked via a £1 holiday promotion in a national tabloid newspaper were looking forward to a seaside break, but found themselves in land-locked Shropshire, NOT five minutes from the coast.

And the holidaymakers were in for more disappointment when they arrived at the Penrhos Arms campsite in Whittington, near Oswestry, to find there was neither an 18-hole golf course nor a fishing lake.

The mix-up occurred when organisers of a September holiday promotion in The Sun apparently confused the Whittington site with a resort of the same name, and also with an SY postcode, 80 miles away in West Wales.

But the problem only came to light when pub landlord and campsite owner, Joe Priamo, was asked by one of his first visitors where the golf course and other facilities were.

A tale of two Whittingtons

“We didn’t know what they were talking about until they showed us the advert which showed on a key that we had a golf course, a fishing lake, showers and other facilties.

“All we’ve got here are electric hook-ups and the toilets in the pub so it’s no wonder some people were disappointed,” he said.

He added that it also appeared people had searched for Penrhos on the internet and found the Penrhos Country Park and Golf Course at Llanrhystud on the Cardiganshire coast which boasted many more facilities than Penrhos, Whittington.

Mr Priamo said he had been contacted by the newspaper in July after his campsite had been advertised in a similar promotion in another national paper and he agreed to take part. “It was basically a free advert so I didn’t have any contact number or see any proof of the advert before the promotion went in,” he said.

As soon as the mix-up came to light Mr Priamo told people who wanted to book that his site was in Shropshire not on the coast.

“Unfortunately this weekend we had someone who had booked early-on before we realised the problem so they were pretty cross when they got here after travelling 200 miles,” he said.

Now, in a bid to put things right, the Penrhos Arms, Whittington, is planning some “improvements” to its facilities.

“It’s a bit of a giggle really but I’m now planning a one-hole golf course in the garden and I suppose we could let people do some fishing if I bury a washing-up bowl in the ground,” he said.

And for those who do want to be near the water’s edge, the Marston’s pub is less than five minutes walk from Whittington Castle moat. A spokesman for The Sun said it was looking into the matter.

By Deborah Knox