Pilgrimage to Pennan

As I was in the Aberdeen area for an interview and was going to have the best part of a day to fill the day after it before the long ferry journey home, and as Local Hero is one of my all-time favourite films, it seemed like a good opportunity to visit Pennan and "the" phone box. I've always fancied visiting Pennan, but to be honest I found it a little disappointing.

It's a nice enough wee village but the Pennan Inn (which was the inn in Local Hero) was closed and the phone box wasn't sitting nicely (and photogenically) by the shore but was now hemmed in by a large wooden shed and a pile of picnic tables.

The village is accessed by a steep road down the cliffs, where there was a landslide in 2007. People had to leave their homes, and then I think some work was done in 2009 to try to prevent further landslides. As the village is perched on a fairly narrow strip of land below the cliffs, the houses have no gardens, so washing is hung on the beach...

There's some cute wee buildings too - I think this one is a very picturesque shed.

How many ropes does one wee boat need?

I'm glad I've finally been to Pennan - but I probably wouldn't go a long way out of my way to visit again. Might well pop there if I was in the area again though, as it is quite photogenic.

However I was also advised to visit Crovie, the next village along, and I'm so glad I did...