To the lighthouse - off St Davids

The Plasticine Men theatre collective are trying to raise money to stage the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a sponsored hike in Pembrokeshire

All the world is a stage - and for one theatre company that includes a remote rocky outcrop 20 miles off St David's Head in Pembrokeshire.

The Plasticine Men theatre group is visiting the rock, which inspired their play Keepers.

It's based on the true story of The Smalls Lighthouse where one keeper died and the other lost his mind.

The two keepers were known to quarrel, and so when one died, his colleague feared he might be accused of murder.

Nobody knows the truth of the ordeal and it has been our mission to try to unpick it and stage it for all to see Director Simon Day

Too frightened to dispose of the dead man's body, he built a coffin and secured it to the outside of the lighthouse.

As the weather conditions worsened, the lid loosened, and the wind made it look as if the dead man was gesturing in the window.

When the keeper was finally relieved from his post four months later, friends said that the experience had been so extreme that he was unrecognisable.

Subsequently a ruling was brought in which banned lighthouses from being staffed by any fewer than three men.

Edinburgh Fringe

The macabre story inspired the three-man theatre company from a coastal location on the other side of Britain - Hastings - to develop their play.

Now they plan to walk along the route of lighthouses in Pembrokeshire, camping and carrying all of their own supplies.

Their route will start at St Anne's Head lighthouse, go north past South Bishop lighthouse, The Smalls and Skokholm at St David's Head.

They will end with the boat ride out to The Smalls on Sunday, 4 July.

The trip is part of a fundraising campaign to finance their trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August where they will present the history of The Smalls every night for a month.

Director Simon Day said: "Nobody knows the truth of the ordeal and it has been our mission to try to unpick it and stage it for all to see

"We are determined to make it out to The Smalls this time. It will be the long awaited pinnacle of this trip.

"We're nervous because it is weather dependent and strong currents make it notoriously difficult to reach. We're crossing our fingers."