Simon's Diary
UK Tour 2002
Day 14
Saturday 30th March 2002
Today was the culmination of one of my life time's ambitions, and now I've done it I'm not disappointed. It's not often that one gets to do something that's been a dream for so long and for it to be better than the fantasy. Since I was 18 I have wanted to come to the village where the film Local Hero was shot. In fact most of Local Hero was filmed in two places, the beach scenes were from an area on the West coast of Scotland and the Village ones were filmed in Pennan, which is where we've come to today, after a 7 hour drive from Southport.
The Pennan of now is not the place portrayed in the Film. The place was is no longer a fishing community, now only one fisherman lives here. The rest of the properties are nearly all owned by people who have come in since then, and are only inhabited on a part time basis. The Pennan Inn still looks very much as it did in the film but there's no grocery shop as was portrayed. The people who lived here before Pennan became a "famous holiday" have either sold up, or moved away and rent out their homes to holiday makers. I had read about all this some time ago so I wasn't coming here under any false pretences.
As we came to the final descent in to Pennan I remembered a dream I'd had where I was driving in to Pennan and was frightened by the steepness of the road. Now in real life we found it was indeed very, very steep, and as we slowly drove down the winding narrow road, a strong smell of burning came from the brakes, I tried to put the gear lever into first but it wouldn't engage so I had to hope that "Brake Fade" wouldn't start becoming serious. We got to the bottom in one piece but a strong smell of burning brake pad followed us in to the village.
As we drove along the one short road that spans Pennan we saw ahead of us in the twilight a man talking to two young men. The man was Evan Ritchie and he was the person who was renting a cottage to us. We'd spoken a few times after I'd found him on the Internet. His kindness towards us with regards arrangements etc.... was quite overwhelming and over the phone he'd come across as a very benevolent parental figure. When we walked in to the cottage we were all shocked by how lovely it was. So far it's the most spacious and well decorated place we've stayed in. On top of that Evan had a real fire blazing away, tea and biscuits, a pie, milk and bread waiting for us. It's not your normal reception, however I have to say if ever there was a way to ensure good behavior from your guests it has to be this. The thought of letting Evan down is almost unbearable.
Once Evan had shown us the ropes he made his way. We ate and unpacked, then Colin and I went to the local Inn.
Karaoke night at the Pennan Inn
(Click on the picture to open a larger version of the picture)
I had to stop myself from laughing as we entered because everyone in there suddenly went in to a mode where they wanted to stop talking and look, but tried out of politeness to continue to speak except the volume dimmed and for a second or so the words slurred a bit. The bar is small, about 12 by 9 foot. So there was just enough room for Colin to go to the counter and for me to queue behind him. I slowly looked around and to my joy there was a woman in the corner, wait for it, who was setting up a Karaoke machine.
Karaoke night at the Pennan Inn
(Click on the picture to open a larger version of the picture - if you
really want to)
I started speaking to her and within minutes was singing Elvis' "The Wonder of You". That earned me a free drink and for every song thereafter a chocolate cream egg (5 eggs= 1 drink). The ice was broken and it wasn't long before everyone was either chatting or singing. We'd got in to the Inn at about 9pm and left at around 5am. I walked from the Pub to the cottage, the sky was just starting to lighten, the sea swept in and out a few feet away and the air felt like a summers evening. If it was just for this night the whole trip was worthwhile.
We'll only be here for 3 nights. As soon as we got here we all said we wished we were staying longer.