The next train from platform 9¾ is delayed
By Kate Simon
The Hogwarts Express has hit the buffers, at least temporarily. Safety inspectors have raised concerns about door locks and passengers being allowed to lean out of the windows of the Jacobite steam train on its scenic journey from Fort William to Mallaig.
For now, Potterheads and other tourists won’t be able to ride or view the historic train – the same one that West Coast Railways lent Warner Bros for the films – as it passes over the curving Glenfinnan Viaduct.
Surely that will be welcome respite, however brief, for the 160 residents of this West Highland village. Hundreds of thousands of Potterheads have swollen the already significant numbers of tourists who visit Glenfinnan for its associations with Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rising.
Yet, this business of visiting somewhere because it’s appeared on film or TV isn’t peculiar to Harry Potter. It’s an established trend, ‘set-jetting’, that has recently accelerated. And Scotland ranks Number 2 in the hotlist of set-jetting destinations this year, boosted by also being a location for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Set-jetting has become big business worldwide. Travel tech giant Expedia’s 2023 travel trends report claims that more than 60% of global travellers have considered visiting places they’ve seen on the silver screen and 39% have put their money where their mouth is.
It’s a fact that hasn’t escaped VisitBritain, which has been busy making the lucrative link between celluloid and sightseeing for several years. Back in 2014, the national tourism agency collaborated with StudioCanal to ‘See Britain through Paddington’s eyes’ on the back of the then newly released film. The campaign encouraged international tourists to treat the whole country as a movie set, taking selfies as they went and not forgetting to hashtag them #PaddingtonsBritain.
Bath for Bridgerton, Highclere House in Hampshire for Downton Abbey, Hatfield House in Hertfordshire for The Crown, the Black Country Living Museum for Peaky Blinders … there are many stops on the set-jetting trail around Britain for visitors from both home and abroad. Lyme Park in Cheshire reports fans of the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice still call by the estate, which doubled as Pemberley, to see the lake where Colin Firth stripped to his shirt and dived in (there’s a tale about that shirt in the Telegraph by fellow Substacker Marklands).
Fast forward to 2023 and all that movie and box-set bingeing through lockdown seems to have increased everyone’s appetite to seek out film and TV locations, rolling out new places to discover.
So where next? Follow the millennials to the locations of current Netflix smash hits. Apparently, this influential cohort is showing the way to Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire for The Witcher, St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall for House of the Dragon, and Scotney Castle in Kent for The Sandman.
In fact, millennials are arriving in such numbers that the National Trust has launched a campaign to recruit a whole new generation of members from their ranks. That’s show business.
Phil’s beer notes
Where would Harry Potter have stopped for a pint of butterbeer on the Hogwarts Express? Options are limited, but the best bet would've been to go all the way into Mallaig, a busy port with a few pubs to choose from, the pick probably the Steam Inn, which serves ales from the Isle of Skye Brewery.
Anyone looking for a proper beer adventure, though, should hop on a ferry to the Knoydart Peninsula where you'll find Britain's most remote pub, the Old Forge at Inverie. No roads go here, you either have to trek 17 miles across the mountains or take the short sea crossing from Mallaig.
The pub has been through some troubled times but is now in the hands of the local community. And the good news is that the Old Forge is now set to reopen at the end of August. The beer was always good here, and you can expect the regulars to keep up the standards.
Photo © Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam