Set in Scotland a Film Fan's Odyssey
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Set in Scotland A Film Fan’s Odyssey visitscotland.com Cover Image: Daniel Craig as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, filmed in Glen Coe. Picture: United Archives/TopFoto This page: Eilean Donan Castle Contents 01 * >> Foreword 02-03 A Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire 04-07 B Argyll & The Isles 08-11 C Ayrshire & Arran 12-15 D Dumfries & Galloway 16-19 E Dundee & Angus 20-23 F Edinburgh & The Lothians 24-27 G Glasgow & The Clyde Valley 28-31 H The Highlands & Skye 32-35 I The Kingdom of Fife 36-39 J Orkney 40-43 K The Outer Hebrides 44-47 L Perthshire 48-51 M Scottish Borders 52-55 N Shetland 56-59 O Stirling, Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & Forth Valley 60-63 Hooray for Bollywood 64-65 Licensed to Thrill 66-67 Locations Guide 68-69 Set in Scotland Christopher Lambert in Highlander. Picture: Studiocanal 03 Foreword 03 >> In a 2015 online poll by USA Today, Scotland was voted the world’s Best Cinematic Destination. And it’s easy to see why. Films from all around the world have been shot in Scotland. Its rich array of film locations include ancient mountain ranges, mysterious stone circles, lush green glens, deep lochs, castles, stately homes, and vibrant cities complete with festivals, bustling streets and colourful night life. Little wonder the country has attracted filmmakers and cinemagoers since the movies began. This guide provides an introduction to just some of the many Scottish locations seen on the silver screen. The Inaccessible Pinnacle. Numerous Holy Grail to Stardust, The Dark Knight Scottish stars have twinkled in Hollywood’s Rises, Prometheus, Cloud Atlas, World firmament, from Sean Connery to War Z and Brave, various hidden gems Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor. It is are uncovered in the pages that follow. perhaps no surprise that 40 per cent of people are influenced to come to the UK This guide brings Scotland’s big-screen after seeing it on film or on television. locations to life so that everyone can “Scotland’s natural beauty and diversity ensures it plays a more fundamental role in the global David Martin-Jones cinematic imagination than we may realise.” From Local Hero and Highlander to Yet Scotland’s natural beauty and experience the visceral excitement of Rob Roy, Braveheart and The Da Vinci diversity ensures it plays a more standing on a movie set. Personally I Code, Scotland has been the perfect fundamental role in the global cinematic will never forget my first sight of Eilean host to the Hollywood A-list. It has also imagination than we may realise. Donan Castle. As we drove round the appeared in classic British movies like Scotland has provided the location crystal-clear loch, through the trees Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, Alexander for countless films from Germany, I caught sight of the iconic castle. Mackendrick’s Whisky Galore!, Powell France, Denmark, Norway, Canada, I experienced a sudden and vivid and Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m China and numerous starstudded flashback to watching Highlander as Going! and cult favourites like The Wicker Bollywood extravaganzas. a child. It was a unique and wonderful Man. It also has recurring cameos in sensation and one I’ll never forget. James Bond and Harry Potter movies. There are also many much-loved films Various home-grown Scottish films have we may not even realise were shot in David Martin-Jones also stood the test of time, including Scotland. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Professor of Film Studies, University of Glasgow comedies such as Gregory’s Girl, the Odyssey, for instance, features scenes feel-good musical Sunshine on Leith on Jupiter which were filmed on the Isle and the Gaelic children’s film Seachd: of Harris. From Monty Python and the Set in Scotland Pennan’s iconic red phone box in a scene from Local Hero. Picture: TopFoto/Goldcrest Films AberdeenAberdeen && AberdeenshireAberdeenshire 05 A There are so many things that can make a movie memorable, things that heighten the senses and make the popcorn taste a little sweeter. It might be an Oscar-winning performance, it might be hilarious one-liners, or it might be stunning scenery. In the case of Scottish film-maker Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983), it’s the simple use of a red telephone box that sticks in the mind, with Mac MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) making a pining call to the picturesque Scottish village with which he has fallen in love. The phone box, which was actually a Camusdarach – some 170 miles away on that Scottish scenery is the best there is. prop, comes to embody a simpler way the west coast of the Highlands (for more No wonder, then, that the Scottish Tourist of life for Mac, an American yuppie Highlands film locations, see page 32). Board (now VisitScotland) teamed up who comes to the fictional Scottish village of Ferness in an attempt to build an oil refinery on behalf of his “Ferness is played by the Aberdeenshire boss, Felix Happer (played by veteran screen legend Burt Lancaster). village of Pennan. Here you can take The film also provides one of the earliest a stroll along the waterfront and pop screen roles for Glasgow-born Peter into the famous Pennan Inn... ” Capaldi, an actor who would go on to fly around in another famous phone box – More than three decades after its release, with Warner Bros to promote holidays in this time of the blue variety – as the 13th Local Hero remains one of Britain’s best- Scotland at the time of the film’s release. incarnation of The Doctor in the BBC’s loved films – a story that shows money isn’t One of Scotland’s most famous novels long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who. everything and proof, if any were needed, was finally made into a movie in 2015, A follow-up to his hit comedy Gregory’s when Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Girl and with a fantastic soundtrack Song was brought to the big screen by Mark Knopfler, the film was Forsyth’s by director Terence Davies. Starring biggest commercial success. Ferness Peterhead-born Peter Mullan and is played by the Aberdeenshire village former model Agyness Deyn, it tells of Pennan. Here you can take a stroll the powerful story of a dysfunctional along the waterfront and pop into the Aberdeenshire farming family from famous Pennan Inn – a place where, the fictional estate of Kinraddie. in the midst of a ceilidh, Mac begs Although the harvest scenes were filmed landlord Gordon (Denis Lawson) to in New Zealand, Sunset Song was also swap places with him, exchanging shot on location in its spiritual home in Houston for a quiet life in Scotland. Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire, including Although the village scenes were shot the Glen Tanar Estate in Royal Deeside. in Pennan, the beach where Fulton But it’s not just the natural scenery that Mackay’s hermit lives in an upturned boat delights visitors to the north east of was shot on the gorgeous white sands of The Aberdeenshire village of Pennan. Scotland. Set in Scotland 06 A “Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire is home to more than 300 castles, ranging from striking clifftop ruins to grand fortresses and sumptuous royal residences.” on page 52), while Castle Fraser in the Marquis of Montrose (the future King Aberdeenshire served as the exterior Charles II) and William Wallace were just for Balmoral in The Queen, a film which some of the notable visitors to Dunnottar. saw Dame Helen Mirren bag an Oscar Mel Gibson, the man who brought the for her portrayal of Elizabeth II. name of Wallace to the cinematic masses Castle Fraser is the largest and most in Braveheart (1995), came to Dunnottar Balmoral Castle and Estate in Ballater – a Royal elaborate Scottish castle to be built to portray the Prince of Denmark in residence since 1852. on the Z-plan design, but the Balmoral William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Franco interiors were filmed at Blairquhan Zeffirelli, 1990). “Dunnottar Castle got the Aberdeenshire is home to more than Castle in Ayrshire (see page 14). part of Elsinore,” recalled Gibson. “Nice 300 castles, ranging from striking and eerie. The trouble is, the weather Another Academy Award-winning clifftop ruins to grand fortresses and wasn’t. We came here for dark and movie to place great emphasis on a sumptuous royal residences. angry weather, instead we got Miami.” castle in the region was Disney-Pixar’s Perhaps the most famous is Balmoral animated fantasy Brave (Mark Andrews Not afraid of Aberdeenshire’s tropical Castle and Estate in Ballater, a residence and Brenda Chapman, 2012). climate, another film crew came of the British Royal Family since 1852. to Dunnottar in 2014 to shoot Victor A series of scouting missions to Scotland The castle is an example of Scots Frankenstein (Paul McGuigan, 2015), in by Disney animators included a trip to Baronial architecture and is classified which Scottish actor James McAvoy joins the incredible Dunnottar Castle, near by Historic Environment Scotland Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe for a Stonehaven. It’s clear from watching as a category A listed building. new spin on the Mary Shelley classic. the adventures of Merida that the Events at Balmoral are depicted in princess’s home of Dunbroch owes a www.visitscotland.com/ Mrs Brown (John Madden, 1997) and great deal of its cinematic grandeur, not aberdeencity-shire The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006), least its clifftop setting, to Dunnottar. but substitute locations were used for While in reality the castle saw little in the both. Mrs Brown, which stars Dame Judi way of bears, rebellious redheads and Dench as Queen Victoria, was filmed ancient curses, Mary Queen of Scots, at Duns Castle (see Borders section Set in Scotland Mel Gibson as Hamlet at Dunnottar Castle.