50 years of The Wicker Man: how the Scottish locations look today

Few films have attained the cult status enjoyed today by Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973). A unique mix of mystery, musical and horror, the film is one of the most eccentric ever produced in Britain. Butchered for its original release, when it played as the B-picture to Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973), the film’s back-story, production and subsequent re-assembly have become a part of cinematic folklore; aptly so, given its now lofty position as the pinnacle of the folk horror genre.

Based loosely on David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual, The Wicker Man follows the fate of police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward). Receiving an anonymous complaint regarding a missing child, Rowan Morrison (Geraldine Cowper), Howie travels to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle, an unusual place where the agricultural community uses the rare warm climate to grow fruit. On finding that the crops have failed the previous year, and learning of the island’s pagan beliefs nurtured by Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), Howie begins to fear that the child is about to be sacrificed for the good of the land. But what dark ritual is really being played out on the island as the May Day celebrations approach?

Summerisle is, of course, a fictional island, with Hardy and his crew creating the illusion of an island setting by filming in a number of coastal towns and villages in southwestern Scotland. Many of the locations are still celebrated and visited by fans of the film to this day.

Come, it is time to keep your appointment with the wicker man… Here are five locations from the film as they stand now.

Summerisle is a composite made largely of small towns dotted along the coast of Dumfries and Galloway. One of these towns is the quaint Kirkcudbright where the high street provides a number of shots. The first we see of it is May Morrison’s sweet shop, which sat at 84 High Street. Today, the shop is an art gallery.

The town hall where the villagers meet later on May Day is also on the high street and was in fact a church, which has now been turned into a visitor centre. The building is mostly unchanged and still recognisable due to its distinctive stone steps outside.

Several other shots of the high street appear in the film. When Howie is being lured to the town hall, this alleyway just adjacent to the location is seen.

Finally, when Howie first arrives on Summerisle, he is shown walking along another road towards Kirkcudbright’s high street, opposite a distinctive castle just out of shot.

In reality, Howie would have had quite a walk from where he first arrives to the Green Man pub where he stays. The pub buildings were actually in Gatehouse of Fleet, and the building still stands at 9 Ann Street. The interiors of the pub, however, were shot in the bar of the Ellangowan Hotel in Creetown, which is now sadly closed.

Another shot of Howie’s initial walk through Summerisle was filmed just slightly further along Ann Street, recognisable thanks to its distinctive cobbled pavement.

Some of the film’s most distinctive locations sit in the isolated rural landscape of Anwoth; chiefly Summerisle’s schoolhouse and the ruined church. We first see Anwoth Old Church during one of the film’s musical numbers. The hole where the maypole stood can still be just made out today.

The schoolhouse itself sits opposite the ruined church and stands today as a little-changed private house.

Leaving the schoolhouse in dismay, Sgt Howie goes for a walk in the desecrated church. We see this shot of him entering the gate of the graveyard, the gravestones still easy to distinguish.

Once inside the ruined church, Howie takes in the heretical destruction of what were once the church’s pews.

Hardy shoots a close-up of a decidedly gothic tomb with overblown ornamentation. Although its sand-timer detail and skull and crossbones look almost too good to be true for a horror film, this stone is in fact real and still standing in the churchyard today.

Finally, in one of the most poignant scenes in the film, Howie approaches what was once the church’s altar, clears it of debris and makes a cross out of broken pieces of wood. The stone behind is still present.

As the film approaches its dramatic conclusion, Summerisle takes the May Day procession down to the beach for what Howie thinks is the final series of offerings. The coastline seen as Summerisle presents his offering to the sea is Port Castle Bay.

In the final ruse of the film before the truth is revealed, Rowan is seen tied and ready for sacrifice outside a cave on the beach. The cave is St Ninian’s Cave, a location of genuine historical significance as it is believed it was used as a hermitage for the early Christian saint. The cave and its network is generally open to the public, though was undergoing maintenance on visiting.

The final sequence of The Wicker Man takes place on the cliff top further down from St Ninian’s Cave at Burrow Head. Today, the location is a caravan site, though plenty of the cliffside locations are preserved. The hole that Howie and Rowan climb out of was actually dug by the crew for the film and is partly present still.

We see a wider shot when more of the characters appear.

For the filming of the sacrifice, two whole wicker men were built for varying shots. This shot was taken further up from the cave opening, and the faint steps in the grass can still be seen today.

Remnants from the structure of this wicker man can still be seen in the surrounding ground, with the odd bit of debris still on the mound.

A secondary wicker man was made and positioned further down the coastline. Its remains are still partly present today; you can find a concrete block with the remains of the stumps of wooden legs. A larger portion of the legs remained until a few years back, when they were cut off by a thief.

The final shot of the film used only the upper portions of a wicker man burning into the sunset. The shot was again taken on the coastline, though slightly further along the path to where the first actual wicker man stood.

IMDb
Finding The Wicker Man
The Wicker Man Fandom

Thanks to Keith Scovell