Scottish acting legend James Cosmo has spoken of the “magical quality” of films shot in Scotland as VisitScotland launches its new-look guide to big screen locations. 

Scottish actor James Cosmo launches VisitScotland's new-look film guide Set in Scotland at Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway © VisitScotland / Julie Howden

Star of iconic Scottish films Highlander, Braveheart and Trainspotting, and TV fantasy series Game of Thrones, James Cosmo has penned the foreword to the national tourism organisation’s revamped guidebook, Set in Scotland.

The 52-page guide features more than 150 films which have been shot entirely or partially in Scotland – 46 more than the previous version first published in 2015 – and details more than 100 film locations.

Set in Scotland was launched by James Cosmo at Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway, which runs steam and heritage diesel train journeys along its tracks, and has appeared in several film and TV productions including Outlander, Cloud Atlas and The Railway Man. The heritage railway is operated by volunteers of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, along with the Museum of Scottish Railways, Scotland’s largest railway museum which is also on the site. (Neil, one of our team at Janet Redler Travel, visit Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway on a tour of Edinburgh and the Forth Valley – read Neil's blog here.)

Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway in the Forth Valley

Screen tourism – or set-jetting – is a global trend in which movie or TV fans are inspired to visit a location after seeing it on screen. It comes in the form of visiting the exact filming location or providing the general motivation to book a holiday to the destination. The trend is long-term, with many visitors citing film titles released long before their trip as motivation, and so can provide ongoing financial support to the regions and businesses linked to popular locations. 

VisitScotland hopes the new-look guide will offer further inspiration for visitors to explore the Scottish regions, while providing a resource for the industry to create new experiences as part of Scotland's national strategy to rebuild the visitor economy and ensure sustainable tourism thrives.

Previous research has shown that 17% of visitors from Scotland’s top international markets (USA, France and Germany) visit a film or TV location while on holiday in Scotland, while a recent Screen Scotland report valued screen tourism at £55 million to the national economy, based on those visiting film and TV locations, creating 1220 full-time jobs.

To date, Scotland has appeared in five of the top 30 highest grossing films of all time, which have brought in a total of $10.6 billion at the box office worldwide. Among them are Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which showed off Edinburgh’s gothic architecture and the quaint fishing village of St Abbs, respectively. 

St Abb's Head in the Scottish Borders © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam

 Nature reserve, St Abb’s Head in the Scottish Borders, cared for by the National Trust for Scotland and accessed by the village of St Abbs, saw a 25% increase in visitors following the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Last year’s visitor numbers remained above pre-Avengers levels, despite the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Wallace Monument overlooking the city of Stirling

After the release of medieval epic Braveheart (1995) about Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, the National Wallace Monument in Stirling reported visitor numbers leapt from 80,000 a year to nearly 200,000 in 1996. For the 10-year period from 1996 to 2005 the average annual number of visitors to the National Wallace Monument was 135,000, and it has remained above 100,000 over subsequent years.

Dan Brown’s 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code, had a huge effect on Rosslyn Chapel. Visitor numbers increased by 72 per cent, from 68,603 in 2004 to 118,151 in 2005. In 2006, following the release of the film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, visitor numbers reached 175,053, providing a major cash injection for conservation work at the site.

Rosslyn Chapel © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam

Actor James Cosmo, whose film career has spanned six decades, writes in the foreword to the guide: "Throughout my career I have been privileged enough to be involved in many [films] that have made a real connection with audiences worldwide. People still come up to me while in Scotland and tell me they are here because they watched Scottish films such as Braveheart or Highlander. And what is wonderful, is that the films are only the starting point. They then form a strong connection with the real country – it may be because of their ancestors or the feeling they get while they’re here. That stays with them."

Amanda Kilburn, Business Development Director at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway, said: “Being a location for many TV and film productions is a real privilege for us. We are fortunate to have such a photogenic site located within easy reach of Edinburgh and Glasgow with the added attraction of being able to give sole use of our line and site to production companies.”

Set in Scotland covers the last 90 years, from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 version of The 39 Steps, in which UNESCO World Heritage Site The Forth Bridge, appears, to The Road Dance, which was filmed on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides during the pandemic and released in May this year. Alien, Avengers, Batman, Fast & Furious, and James Bond, are among the global film franchises to have come to Scotland. To download Set in Scotland visit www.visitscotland.com/film.

If you or your group would like to enjoy a tailor-made location tour of Scotland to see where some of your favourite movies were shot, please do contact our friendly team today.