Locations, arranged by location

(See also locations arranged by scene for each version.)

\*Castle Kennedy and \*Lochinch Castle are basically the same place...

See this Google map to see these locations, some with Google Street views!

See also Andy Taylor's location footage:

- from 2000 of Anwoth, Burrowhead, Castle Kennedy, Creetown (Bakery and Ellangowan Hotel), Gatehouse of Fleet, Isle of Whithorn Castle, Kirkcudbright, Logan Botanic Gardens, St Ninian’s, Stranraer and the Whithorn Library.

- from 2019 of Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse of Fleet, Ellangowan Hotel and Anwoth.

See also Paul Meacock's pages that show the scene in the movie and the location as it is now for most of the scenes. (Link will lead to a the media section of a Facebook group for a tour of the sites back in 2022. You will have to scroll through them to find them. Once you recognize the pages style, you will easily find the rest of them.)

**Ayrshire, Culzean castle (**12 miles south of Ayr, 4 miles west of Maybole). - exterior of LS castle, dining room shot of LS's castle, (Ailsa Craig is in the distance of one exterior shot there.), Holly Grimmond's house exterior, spiral staircase Howie looks down during house search.

**Anwoth** - ruined church (Anwoth Old Kirk), schoolhouse, maypole, graveyard, harvest festival photographs, Howie peering over graveyard wall, woman crying on grave and couples watering graves, quick shot of Howie riding in trap.

**Burrow Head** - hole Howie and Rowan come out of, cliffs by wicker man and closing scenes (Hoseasons Caravan Site now).

\***Castle Kennedy Gardens** (part of Stair Estate, near Stranraer) - procession, fire dance, chop chop scene at "the Stones" (stone henge), tree-lined path to beach.

**Creetown**, Ellangowan Hotel was the Green Man interior, interior of Walker's bakery (29 St John St), shot of curious woman looking out window as Howie walks by on arrival is opposite the bakery which can be seen in the reflection!

**Evesham, England.** (?) The Hardy Brothers have some documents and pictures of orchards there. Also a letter to the chief constable to ask about filming there. This would be for the scenes of the pregnant women touching the blossoms. This footage was used in the show reel that was put together for Hardy and Shaffer to "sell" the movie to whatever studio they could end up with. (It is possible that they were only considering using this location for filming that scene. If other evidence comes to light, I will revise this.) New clues suggest that the pregnant women came from a local maternity clinic (Richard Ball, Evesham Historical Society)

**Gatehouse of Fleet -** Green Man exterior (former Cally Estates Office), (Stark Chemist’s) chemist’s interiors (20 High St.), Dr Ewan's house is right next to the chemist's (18 High St) (exterior now), skull bollards by harbor, morning scene where Willow is washing the tables. The Cally Palace Hotel was used for wrap party and the interior shots of the police car were shot in a shed there. Some scenes of Howie riding his bicycle to Mrs Grimmond's that didn't make it into any version were also shot on the grounds there.

**Isle of Whithorn** - funeral parlour, search for Rowan, Isle Castle - exterior of castle seen in search, two dolls in bedroom, Ingrid Pitt's bath scene

**Kirkcudbright** - Greyfriars Episcopal Church (altar and main window), bakery exterior, Interior and exterior of police station, house inspection (Harbour Cottage Gallery - now), houses seen before arriving at and May Morrison's sweet shop, door with fanged knocker; sun figure on wall - Tolbooth (where celebrants gathered before the procession, not the courtyard) and the alleyways during the hobby chase are on High St. Steam Packet Inn where mainland pub footage was shot but not used (prostitute filmed in alley next to it?), bridge (not shot but stills exist), (swans too?).

\***Lochinch Castle**, Castle Kennedy Gardens, (part of Stair Estate, near Stranraer) - Lord Summerisle's entrance hall and main room, courtyard before the procession, walk to beach.

**Loch Ryan**, near Stranraer - the plane taking off from the mainland.

**Newton Stewart**, They shot here on Nov 16, 1972. George Edwards Sport Shop (now Sue Ryder Charity Shop), 17 Victoria St - darkroom used in the movie and British Lion may have used it for dailies/rushes too (or had a van parked by it for that. More on this here), Kirroughtree House Hotel (Heron Way) (some cast (the stars) and crew (director, producer, composer, other high-ups) stayed here). Auditions for extras and crew held at the Douglas House (Antique Center and Tea Room), King St which was also used for the production office when shooting. Galloway Arms Hotel (54-58 Victoria St), where the band, some crew and some "character actors" stayed, a "temperance hotel" nearby to the Galloway Arms, where Aubrey Morris and Lindsay Kemp stayed. (Gary Carpenter), more cast and crew stayed at these hotels: Creebridge House Hotel (6 Creebridge), The Bruce Hotel (88 Queen St,), The Crown Hotel (102 Queen St, Wigtown Rd,), The Glencairn Hotel (14 Arthur St), The Auld Kings Arms (65-69 Main St, Glenluce), The George Hotel (78 Victoria St)(pics of it now 1, 2, 3), Rowallan House (Corsbie Rd) and a flat above the old bank/betting parlour (78 Victoria St) for the Cowper twins. (See the accommodations lists for where it was planned that the cast and crew would go. ) The film wrap party was held at Louden McNeil's Shennaton House. (Some behind the scenes shots taken at various hotels.),

**Plockton** - house inspection (Sannachan), harbor scenics - the plane lands near the edge of Rhu, Howie walks along both ends of the causeway from Rhu to Harbour St, also some shots of Howie in his plane as he tries to take off, Plockton Hotel (with black front), evil eye boat (named Escapmador). (Plockton webcam!), Harbour Master's house and landing (Tigh-an-Rudha), girl who falls out of the closet during the house search (shot in the middle bedroom of Tigh-an-Rhudh), Howie barges in on the woman at the spinning wheel (Tullochard, Cooper Street), the ship he boards was in the harbor, cut scene where man rides bicycle across the causeway and other man plays Jew's Harp. The house that Howie falls down the steps of is the back of the cottage next to Tigh-an-Rhudh called Salaan. The interior shot of the half-dressed women he surprises is also there. The steps of the red house Howie walks down are behind Sannachan.

**Port Logan** - Logan Botanic Garden - Howie and LS talk apples, (the shots looking up at Howie's plane as it flies over the village), snail footage? (Possibly publicity shots of LS in kilt too.)

**St Ninian’s Cave** - beach and cave entrance.

**South Africa, (Ceres Valley? Stellensbosch?)** - aerials of South African "groves". (Shot when Hardy and Shaffer were filming a commercial there before the film was shot. See this article.)

**Stranraer,**  West Pier - Howie flies in and meets McTaggert on the mainland, also some shots of Howie in his plane as he tries to take off. Broadstone Rd - postman bicycling. (Plane taking off and harbor shots filmed in nearby Loch Ryan.)

**Threave** - cut greenhouse/experimental garden scene including long apple speech (website) They shot here on Nov 11, 1972.

**Tonbridge, Kent, England,** David Hemmings' garden (Hush House Manor, Hush Heath Estate, Five Oak Ln, Staplehurst, Tonbridge) - phallic topiary, (possibly: women touching blossoms of trees and approach to those orchards although it is looking more likely that that scene was shot in Evesham, England - see above. The orchards are now part of the Balfour Winery.) Negatives/contact sheet of the orchards here.

**Western Isles, Skye and Inner Hebrides/Trotternish coastline** of NW Scotland - flying to Summerisle. Includes the Isle of Skye, the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr. Additional info: Eilean Mòr, (Crowlin Islands, Isle Of Skye), Eilean na Crèadha, (Drumbuie, Highland), 2nd unit took off from Kyle of Lochalsh. (Mal May: Howie is flying roughly south west following the coast of the Lochalsh peninsula above Plockton airstrip down toward Kyle of Lochalsh. All those wee islands are very distinctive and I think more than one pass has been spliced here. You can see Eilean Mhòr Crowlin appearing in the starboard cockpit window its a dead give away as you can see the wee lochan in the middle. I have been there many times. The next cut is to the Old Man of Storr but that is well known. The rest is Skye.) (See these maps: Plockton to Kyle of Lochalsh and the larger area.)

**Whithorn** - Public library exterior and interior: children carrying death out, Howie reading about May Day, Howie quizzing the librarian/registrar; home of Mrs Ruby Kirk, 59 George St (see pics): Willow, Howie and Alder's room interiors. Exterior of Willow and Howie's rooms, (the shots of the garden in front of the gunnera plants where Lord Summerisle presents Ash to Willow? (more likely)); hairdressing salon - Elizabeth R Smith hairdressers, 23 George Street (see some pics after the movie 1, 2 and its exterior.), fishmongers and butcher's shops (somewhere in the area...)

**Wookey Hole, Wells, Somerset, England** (website) Cave interior, orgy.

## Links for further info

The late, great Wicker-Man.com had great info. Here's a version on the Internet Archive from 3/24/07.

The Wicker Man Pilgrim fan Martin Griffin documents his travels to TWM's filming locations.

Scotland The Movie has a good article on the filming locations for The Wicker Man.

Reelstreets has an excellent scene-by-scene then and now comparison (but not for every scene...)

The D+K Wicker Man Trail

Geograph has lots of good pictures with maps.

The Creetown site has lots of info about other locations as well.

Some interesting info here as well.

A fun video, at least to me, video with some good shots of some of the locations.

British Film Locations - Uses this site as a/the source! Some good pics but not as complete as this site.