Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s hitchhiking trip

In August 1959, Paul McCartney and George Harrison set off on a hitch-hiking trip from the north-west to the south-west of England during the summer holidays. Paul brought his guitar, and George possibly carried one as well. Travelling light, they packed only basic equipment, including a small cooking stove, a few cans of food, a camera, and very little money.

They left Liverpool on Saturday, August 15, and managed to cover around 200 miles on their first day, reaching Radstock, Somerset. There, they were offered a room for the night at a local pub.

The following day, Sunday, they continued south for another seventy miles, arriving at Sandy Bay holiday camp in Exmouth, where they stayed overnight.

On Monday, Paul and George travelled on to the seaside town of Paignton. Conditions were less comfortable there, and they spent a freezing night on the beach.

By Tuesday, they had reached Chepstow in Wales before making their way to the Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli, where Bett Robbins, Paul’s cousin, and her husband Mike were staying. Although they managed to meet them, they could not remain at the camp, either because it was full or because they could not afford to stay there.

They then travelled to the coast near Harlech, visiting the Brierley’s farmhouse they had visited the previous year, before beginning the journey back to Liverpool. After a week on the road, Paul and George returned home on Saturday, August 22.

The details of this trip are taken from “The Beatles: All These Years – Tune In” by Mark Lewisohn. Read it for a much more detailed account of the journey.

Once we decided to visit the West Country and spent a few glorious days going all over the place. By night we slept on the beach, but by the time we had come up to South Wales the weather had got bad and we needed some shelter.

Paul McCartney – From Disc, April 27, 1963

We asked the police if we could sleep in their cells, but no dice. However, they gave us permission to kip in the stand of a football ground. What a night that was!

George Harrison – From Disc, April 27, 1963

One year, Paul and I decided to go hitchhiking. It’s something nobody would ever dream of these days. Firstly, you’d probably be mugged before you got through the Mersey Tunnel, and secondly everybody’s got cars and is already stuck in a traffic jam. I’d often gone with my family down South to Devon, to Exmouth, so Paul and I decided to go there first.

We didn’t have much money. We found bed-and-breakfast places to stay. We got to one town, and we were walking down a street and it was getting dark. We saw a woman and said, ‘Excuse me, do you know if there’s somewhere we could stay?’ She felt sorry for us and said, ‘My boy’s away, come and stay at my house.’ So she took us to hers — where we beat her, tied her up and robbed her of all her money! Only joking; she let us stay in her boy’s room and the next morning cooked us breakfast. She was really nice. I don’t know who she was — the Lone Ranger?

We continued along the South Coast, towards Exmouth. Along the way we talked to a drunk in a pub who told us his name was Oxo Whitney. […] Then we went along to Paignton. We still had hardly any money. […]

We got to Paignton with no money to spare so we slept on the beach for the night. Somewhere we’d met two Salvation Army girls and they stayed with us and kept us warm for a while. But later it became cold and damp, and I remember being thankful when we decided that was enough and got up in the morning and started walking again. We went up through North Devon and got a ferry boat across to South Wales, because Paul had a relative who was a redcoat in Butlins at Pwllheli, so we thought we’d go there.

At Chepstow, we went to the police station and asked to stay in a cell. They said, ‘No, bugger off. You can go in the football grandstand, and tell the cocky watchman that we said it was OK.’ So we went and slept on a hard board bench. Bloody cold. We left there and hitchhiked on. Going north through Wales we got a ride on a truck. The trucks didn’t have a passenger seat in those days so I sat on the engine cover. Paul was sitting on the battery. He had on jeans with zippers on the back pockets and after a while he suddenly leapt up screaming. His zipper had connected the positive and negative on the battery, got red hot, and burnt a big zipper mark across his arse.

When we eventually got to Butlins, we couldn’t get in. It was like a German prisoner-of-war camp — Stalag 17 or something. They had barbed-wire fences to keep the holiday-makers in, and us out. So we had to break in.

George Harrison – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

I was thinking the other day of my hitchhiking bursts. This was before the Beatles. I suddenly was keen on hitchhiking, so I sold this idea to George and then John.

I know this memory. You and George hitchhiked to Paignton.

Yeah, Exeter and Paignton. We did that, and then I also hitchhiked with John. He and I got as far as Paris. What I was thinking about was — it’s interesting how I was the instigator. Neither of them came to me and said, “Should we go hitchhiking?” It was me, like, “I’ve got this great idea.” […]

I even know the details. You and George slept on the beach. 

That’s right.

Some Salvation Army girls kept you warm. 

Yes.

Then at some point you sat on a car battery and zapped your ass? 

That was George who did that! I have a very clear recollection. He showed me the scar. Let’s set the record straight: It was George’s ass, and it was a burn the exact shape of a zip from his jeans.

Paul McCartney – Interview with New York Times, November 29, 2020

Some of the tracks on this album are about memories of mine. One of the funny things we used to do before the Beatles, I would say to John and George actually was saying, “Should we should we go hitchhiking?” We didn’t have much money. So the the thing to do was to get a lift off lorries that were going down south from Liverpool. If you got a lift, you had a holiday for nothing, you know. And I’d suggested this to George. So him and me did it. And the great thing is, you know, it really bonds you cuz um you’re just stuck with each other. Um and so you learn each other’s humor, learn each other’s likes and dislikes. On the Welsh trip on going to Harlech, we thumbed a lift and it was a little milk van and those were the first electric cars you ever saw. That’s what they used electric cars for. We just just about got in and there was the driver here, George, sitting in the middle and then me here. George was sitting on the battery. We didn’t think anything of it, you know. It’s like, “Yeah, okay. Somewhere to sit and we’re getting a free lift.” Suddenly, George jumps up. I said, “What? What’s up?” It turned out he had jeans with a zip on the back and it connected up on the battery. So I must say we when we got to the bed and breakfast later he showed me had a big zip mark on his butt [laughter] It brings you together.

Paul McCartney – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session, April 16, 2026

We were hitch-hiking down south, which is what one of the song on the new album is about. And we got a lift from a milk float, which was electric. It was one of the only vehicle that we knew that was electric. We were about four miles an hour, but it was a lift, so we were quite happy. The driver was sit on the right-hand side, there was a battery in the middle, and there was the passenger seat on the left-hand side. George sat on the battery, and everything was going fine, and suddenly, BANG, he jumps up, “what’s that, what’s wrong?” He had a pair of jeans with a zip on the pocket, and it connected up with the battery, given him a bolt. Later, when we got to our B&B, he showed me, he had the zip tattoed on his bum!

That was always my story, that I told to people. And I met Olivia Harrison, George’s widow, quite recently, and she was saying “Oh, I love that story of you and George going down to Wales, and you sat on the battery, and it connected and you got a scar on your bum.” I said, “it wasn’t me, it was George”, but I think it’s amazing how memory does that. It can just morph.

Paul McCartney – Interview with The Rest Is History podcast, May 15, 2026

For his 2026 album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane“, Paul McCartney reminded this trip with George, and wrote the track “Down South.”

The packaging of “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane“ made use of an expansive collage composed of dozens of tinted images in reds, oranges, blues, and yellows. The composition incorporated childhood photographs, performance shots, group scenes, youthful portraits, including several photographs of this hitchhiking trip with George.

One of the songs is “Down South”, which is about you hitchhiking with George. You were saying earlier at the fan listening event that you can’t remember who suggested the hitchhiking, but you think it was probably you. Is that because you were the more adventurous, more rebellious one?

I think that’s just my character — to be a bit more of a planner. You know, I would just think, “Wow, what a good idea.” And so I’d float it and say to George, “What do you think?” We could go on a cheap holiday because we didn’t have much money. So yeah, I’m pretty sure it was me. I went on a couple of hitchhiking trips with George, which were great. They’re very bonding. So that was before the Beatles — when we became the Beatles, we knew we had those memories already in common.

Paul McCartney – Interview with NME, May 30, 2026

From The ‘debt’ repaid in apologetic letter from Paul McCartney years after a holiday in Harlech with George Harrison | ITV News Wales, March 29, 2021:

A letter revealing how Sir Paul McCartney repaid the ‘debt’ of a blanket he took home with him after a holiday in Harlech is set to be auctioned.

McCartney and fellow Beatle George Harrison visited the Gwynedd seaside resort of Harlech while on a hitchhiking holiday in 1958, before they gained global fame. They knocked on the door of a farmhouse belonging to the Brierley family and were allowed to pitch their tent in the field at the rear of their bungalow. But a downpour on their first night prompted the pair to seek refuge in the farmhouse, and they ended up staying for a week. McCartney and Harrison became friendly with the young John Brierley, a musician himself, and later sat in with his local skiffle group The Vikings during a performance at the Queen’s Hotel pub in the village. Mr Brierley also recalled several days of playing snooker and playing Elvis Presley’s first LP, ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’, as well as McCartney trying to work out the solo in the Buddy Holly song ‘Think It Over’ on the family piano.

The pair enjoyed themselves so much they returned to the Brierleys’ home the following year, taking home with them one of the family’s blankets.

When The Beatles became known to the world years later, Mr Brierley’s mother, Irene, wrote to McCartney to jokingly remind him she was still a blanket short.

In a letter back, McCartney wrote: “Dear Mrs Brierley (Irene), your letter reached me eventually and I was sorry to hear about my ‘debt’. I remember well the fun we had in Harlech and hope the enclosed cheque will settle our money differences! Excuse the scrawl as I’m trying to write this on a bouncing express train!! I was very sorry to hear about your hubby – he was a very nice man. Please give my best to your boys. Kindest regards, Paul (McCartney).“

Mrs Brierley went on to cash the £30 cheque sent by the musician. The letter is being auctioned at a starting price of £3,000.

From The ‘debt’ repaid in apologetic letter from Paul McCartney years after a holiday in Harlech with George Harrison | ITV News Wales, March 29, 2021