Local Hero is one of my favourite films. I first saw it as a 16 year old on a date. I had won tickets to see another film, the Meaning of Life, but forgot to bring them with me. Fuck I was embarrassed when I told my date outside Hoyts George Street, and I think that was the end of that.
The Ship Inn, Banff in Aberdeenshire is boarded up now, but they used its interior for the bar scenes.
Pictured, the stunning village of Pennan, used as the fictional village of Ferness, the descent to Loch Moidart where Mac and Oldsen run over a rabbit, and Loch Tarff, the view they wake to after spending a night in the car because of fog.
Then the aqueduct to Hogwarts, followed by the shores of Loch Shiel near the village of Glenfinnan, birthplace of Conor Macleod of the Clan Macleod in 1513, who is immortal by the way. Plenty of tourists in the car park by the aqueduct, slow and clumsy drivers, their reverse parking no better than that of a small child.
Down in Glencoe is the field where the Macleod’s fought the Fraser’s …”There is one called Conor among them.”
Just around the corner is the valley that David Craig and Judy Dench look down to Bond’s ancestral home at Skyfall.
The following is my favourite moment from Local Hero, where the spivvy Texan oil salesman, having been utterly captured by the beauty of the place he was sent to purchase for the purposes of building a refinery, reevaluates his life and priorities. Bear in mind this was 1983.
“Mac: I have a proposition for you, Gordon. I know I may be a bit tipsy, but I want you to consider this seriously. Okay?
Gordon: Okay.
Mac: Okay. I want to swap with you - everything. I want to stay here, run the hotel, do little bits of business. You can go to Houston. Take the Porsche, the house, the job. It's a good life there, Gordon. I pull down 80,000 a year, plus I have over 50,000 in mixed securities. I want you to have it all. There's nothing due on the car, it's pure ownership. And I won't let down your good name here, Gordon. I'll make a good Gordon, Gordon. What do you say, pal?
Gordon: What about Stella?
Mac: I was coming to that …”
Where I slept: Fife Lodge Hotel (Banff): Cosy and old fashioned. Inch Hotel (Port Augustus): Awesome views of Loch Ness. Mheall Cottage (Loch Gilphead): Beautiful location near Crinnan, great walks and neolithic sites to explore nearby, and the host has a Canadian Toller who loves to be involved in whatever is going on.
Where I ate: Amuse (Aberdeen) A great place for an overindulgent lunch.
