Pennan
Our first view of Pennan...setting for 'Local Hero'
The whole Village of Pennan.
The smallest home in Pennan.
The Phone Box!! not as it is in the Movie those buildings and cars certainly weren't there but it is opposite the Pub.
We did it... we did it... we made it to Pennan!! For 22 years I have wanted to visit Pennan, I didn't know where it was because all I had seen was the movie but from the first of at least 20 times I saw 'Local Hero' I've wanted to visit the town it was set in! We are staying in Nairn, in a wonderful little flat where we can cook and do our washing and today made the trip to Pennan... Very Big Sigh!!! It was all and much more than I was hoping it would be!
Local Hero is a movie about Knox Oil Company in Dallas wanting to set up a North Sea Oil Town in the North of Scotland, the boss (Burt Lancaster who is hardly in the movie thankfully) sends a guy called MacIntyre, (Mac) because he sounds Scottish but in fact is Jewish and had a name change... Mac is played by Peter Riegert?? The Scottish guy sent with him is played by Peter Capaldi, I've forgotten his name in the movie... Anyway Mac is trying to do a deal with this little Scottish Village to buy it, the whole Village wants to sell but is holding out for more money... The film is wonderfully quirky with some beautiful Characters and a film that has never been taken off the number one psition of my top ten most favourite movies!
After leaving towns like McDuff and Elgin and McBeth and Banff we are in very rural area much different to the West Coast of Scotland where it's hilly barren and very rugged. The road is two lane with a central marking but soon becomes just one lane... the North Sea is in front of us and down very steep cliffs... we are nowhere, there are no buildings in sight... nothing but soft green fields and the sea in front of us when the road does a sharp hairpin to the right then steeper than steep to another hairpin bend to the left... we can't see the road ahead but are in first gear winding down and down... slate roofs begin to appear... a walled boat harbour then white painted buildings in front and we drive on one lane between two buildings which we could touch if we each opened our windows and put our hands out... to the sea front. Turning left there is a sort of two lane road with the houses right on the road to our left and a sea wall walkway and the ocean to our right... parking is possible along this road so we do so and out we get. I am so excited!
The houses are white and small and although not actually joined to each other are very close... they are about two small rooms deep leaving only a couple of feet of yard to the shere cliff behind them... across the road and on the walkway are clothes lines some full of the days washing... it is a weird sight. The town is maybe 20 houses in all no shops but with one small pub, not the pub in the Movie but still very cute, we have to go in for some lunch and find the host and hostess... lets call them Gordon and Stella Urquhart as in the movie, they are a young Scottish couple just returned from living in Perth.... Australia!!! They have moved back home for good. We find the phone box where Mac called America and saw the Northern Lights and I ring Gwilym and Emily as their (our) phone number is the only one I remember... £1 gives us a quick 'Hello we are here in Pennan!'
We spent a wonderful time walking up and down the village, having lunch in the tiniest pub I've ever been in and me taking photos and more photos... thankfully my battery was still working. Driving up the road and out of Pennan is very sad indeed... not that I would like to live there but I feel it is part of me. The girl in the Pub had only seen the movie a short while ago and can't understand my love of it... no one else I know has either... except my friend Jo Hind who was with me the first time we saw it!! I've been there Jo... and it's all and more that I expected... I think I'm in love!
The whole Village of Pennan.
The smallest home in Pennan.
The Phone Box!! not as it is in the Movie those buildings and cars certainly weren't there but it is opposite the Pub.
We did it... we did it... we made it to Pennan!! For 22 years I have wanted to visit Pennan, I didn't know where it was because all I had seen was the movie but from the first of at least 20 times I saw 'Local Hero' I've wanted to visit the town it was set in! We are staying in Nairn, in a wonderful little flat where we can cook and do our washing and today made the trip to Pennan... Very Big Sigh!!! It was all and much more than I was hoping it would be!
Local Hero is a movie about Knox Oil Company in Dallas wanting to set up a North Sea Oil Town in the North of Scotland, the boss (Burt Lancaster who is hardly in the movie thankfully) sends a guy called MacIntyre, (Mac) because he sounds Scottish but in fact is Jewish and had a name change... Mac is played by Peter Riegert?? The Scottish guy sent with him is played by Peter Capaldi, I've forgotten his name in the movie... Anyway Mac is trying to do a deal with this little Scottish Village to buy it, the whole Village wants to sell but is holding out for more money... The film is wonderfully quirky with some beautiful Characters and a film that has never been taken off the number one psition of my top ten most favourite movies!
After leaving towns like McDuff and Elgin and McBeth and Banff we are in very rural area much different to the West Coast of Scotland where it's hilly barren and very rugged. The road is two lane with a central marking but soon becomes just one lane... the North Sea is in front of us and down very steep cliffs... we are nowhere, there are no buildings in sight... nothing but soft green fields and the sea in front of us when the road does a sharp hairpin to the right then steeper than steep to another hairpin bend to the left... we can't see the road ahead but are in first gear winding down and down... slate roofs begin to appear... a walled boat harbour then white painted buildings in front and we drive on one lane between two buildings which we could touch if we each opened our windows and put our hands out... to the sea front. Turning left there is a sort of two lane road with the houses right on the road to our left and a sea wall walkway and the ocean to our right... parking is possible along this road so we do so and out we get. I am so excited!
The houses are white and small and although not actually joined to each other are very close... they are about two small rooms deep leaving only a couple of feet of yard to the shere cliff behind them... across the road and on the walkway are clothes lines some full of the days washing... it is a weird sight. The town is maybe 20 houses in all no shops but with one small pub, not the pub in the Movie but still very cute, we have to go in for some lunch and find the host and hostess... lets call them Gordon and Stella Urquhart as in the movie, they are a young Scottish couple just returned from living in Perth.... Australia!!! They have moved back home for good. We find the phone box where Mac called America and saw the Northern Lights and I ring Gwilym and Emily as their (our) phone number is the only one I remember... £1 gives us a quick 'Hello we are here in Pennan!'
We spent a wonderful time walking up and down the village, having lunch in the tiniest pub I've ever been in and me taking photos and more photos... thankfully my battery was still working. Driving up the road and out of Pennan is very sad indeed... not that I would like to live there but I feel it is part of me. The girl in the Pub had only seen the movie a short while ago and can't understand my love of it... no one else I know has either... except my friend Jo Hind who was with me the first time we saw it!! I've been there Jo... and it's all and more that I expected... I think I'm in love!
4 Comments:
Pennie,
I know how much you wanted to visit Pennan so am glad it lived up to your expectations. I was wondering as I was reading whether there was in fact a phone box - how great it was there and you made a call.
Brenda
Elgin is where my grandfather came from Pennie. He and two of his brothers left there after their father died and they settled in dusty Mallee wheat country. Two of them married sisters whos ancestors came from the Orkneys.
We visited Elgin and didnt like the main part of town very much but found the lovely old tiny stonewalled graveyard where my ggrandfather - Black Bob (they're all Roberts - Dean is Dean Robert) is buried. I can visualise your travels - its lovely.
Kerry
Sounds like you are having a WONDERFUL time. Hope the weather holds out for you. It's lovely here was 30 in Richmond today! Am heading up to the mountains on Sunday to wander in some of the beautiful gardens in Leura and surrounds and then the next w/e to Mittagongon to check out the tulips. Lovely to keep in touch. Must try Snyping when you get back to London. Cheers, Steph
Don't knock Burt Lancaster. He was in one of my favourite movies - "1900", directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and staring Robert de Niro, Donald Sutherland, Gerard Depardieu and the wonderful Burt Lancaster. It ran for about 4 hours.
Burt could speak fluent Italian and when he wasn't starring in American moveies he was starring in Italian ones.
He took top billing in "Atlantic City" in 1980, another great movie.
Peter S
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