Nestled in the trees high above Loch Awe it is as far removed from the crowded curry capitals of Glasgow and Bradford as you can get.

However, a life-long curry fan has cooked up a new career by turning his garden shed, in this idyllic, isolated,spot, into one of the most remote takeaways in Britain.

David Gill's secret curry recipes, gleaned from Indian crew mates in the Merchant Navy, are tempting return customers to drive the long and winding road to his door again and again.

After seven years at sea Mr Gill worked as a roving marine engineer.

Then, when a back injury forced him to give his job up, he decided to follow his childhood dream and cook for a living.

With a garden shed sitting empty, he set to work transforming it into a takeaway, stocking everything from baltis and bhunas, to vindaloo, at £4 a time. 

The plan seemed the obvious choice as family and friends had long raved about his curries, to the point where he always kept some in the freezer.

Now the 58-year-old, who lives on the edge of the hamlet of Inverinan, where there are only ten houses, freezes his delicious dishes for customers to reheat when they eventually get back home.

Customers are much more likely to see sheep than people on the single track road approaching the Black Rock take away, which is 27 miles from Oban, four miles from the remote Argyll village of Kilchrenan on one side and the same distance to Dalavich on the other.

Now, with three seasons under his belt, Mr Gill, who is helped by wife Joanne, said: "We didn't know how popular we would become.

"Although it is quite seasonal, when the school holidays are on we get an influx of people from the holiday cabins at Dalavich."

Distance is no object for the takeaway's steady procession of loyal customers. 

Mr Gill said: "A couple from Campbeltown, (a three and a half hour drive from Inverinan) are regulars customers, they take away a stack of curries every month, I think they drive here when they are doing their shopping in Oban."

The takeaway, which is usually unmanned, uses an honesty box payment system, so it can operate seven days a week from 10am -10pm and the couple have never had anything stolen from the shop, which also stocks Indian starters, chutneys, pickles and tasty desserts.

Mr Gill, who tucked in to his first Vesta boil-in -the-bag curry as a child and his first "proper curry" when he was a 17-year-old student in Tyneside, said: "I have always been experimental with spices, when I was young I wanted to be a chef and learnt a lot of the basic stuff from my mother.

"Then my interest in electronics came on and I was in the Merchant Navy as a Radio Officer for seven years, on board the oil tankers and that's where I picked up recipes and my love of spices, because I would sit with the crew and eat with the crew.

"They would fish off the back of the vessel when we were anchored and then make a red snapper curry."

He added: "Friends and family used to come and have one of my curries, say it was lovely and that I could sell them. I used to have some stocked in the freezer and they would say, can we take one home?"

Now holidaymakers from all over the world call in at the takeaway, which now has two big freezer loads of frozen curries to choose from.

Mrs Gill, who helps with food preparation, stocking the shop and taking care of leaflet design and marketing, said: "As soon as people see the sign, they stop and say what is this? I have heard them say, look at that, a curry shop - here?"