Your home in the Highlands
The wild country around Glencoe has been a favourite of Hollywood location scouts for decades, and several of the films shot in these glens were made right on our doorstep. Here are a few of them, with a little local colour.
1995
Braveheart
Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning epic was filmed among the mountains of Glencoe and Glen Nevis, a short drive from us. Gibson passed by daily during the shoot and stayed just along the road in a rented house in Duror, entourage and all. A wooden-and-plastic fort was built in Glencoe for the filming and took months to put together.
The story goes that one morning Gibson turned up nursing a hangover and was in no mood for a long horse scene. So they filmed him from the waist up while he sat on a large crew member's shoulders, bobbing up and down as if he were riding, for the whole take.
The Hogwarts Express
The Harry Potter films
Several of the Harry Potter films used locations close by. The Hogwarts Express is really the Jacobite steam train, which runs from Fort William to Mallaig over the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct through the summer and makes a wonderful day out. Take in the scenery on the way to Mallaig, a bite of fish and chips there and a wander round, and you are back in time for dinner. Sit on the left-hand side as you leave Fort William for the best of the viaduct.
A specially built Hagrid's house went up in Glencoe for filming, and Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid himself, stayed at the neighbouring Holly Tree Hotel during one of the shoots. He is, our kids will tell you, almost as big a character in person. Many of the younger faces in the films were extras drawn from the local schools.
1995
Rob Roy
Liam Neeson led this one, alongside Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth and Brian Cox. Scenes were shot in Glen Coe, Glen Nevis and across Rannoch Moor, all close at hand, and the aerial photography of the glens is breathtaking, right from the opening where Neeson sees off a band of cattle rustlers. The soundtrack features Capercaillie, the celebrated Celtic band founded by Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson of Taynuilt, near Oban, whose music sits beautifully against the scenery.
And more on screen
Bond, and a castle or two
Glencoe keeps turning up at the cinema. The single-track road down Glen Etive, just over the hill, is the James Bond road from Skyfall, where 007 turns his Aston Martin into the glen on the way home to Scotland. And an hour or so north, Eilean Donan, arguably Scotland's most photogenic castle, has had more than one screen outing of its own, from Highlander to the Bond films.