Pennan Inn finds new owners
Thanks to its appearance in the film Local Hero, most are aware of the existence of Pennan (if not its name) and its red telephone box.
The location featured in Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film, which saw Burt Lancaster play the owner of a huge American petro-chemical business, out to set up a refinery on the coastal location, initially a hard, no-nonsense businessman, finally mellowed by the local magic of the village and its people.
The hotel behind the telephone box had been on the market for over a year, but has now been sold, believed to have gone to a local couple. The hotel cold be restored and open for business by May, providing the sale is completed and plans proceed as expected.
In 2005, the village came first in a list of the top ten greatest uses of British film locations:
1. Local Hero - Pennan, Aberdeenshire2. The Full Monty - Sheffield3. Trainspotting4. The Railway Children5. An American Werewolf in London6. The French Lieutenant’s - Lyme Regis, Dorset7. Brassed Off - Barnsley, Doncaster, Halifax and Grimethorpe Colliery8. Brief Encounter - Carnforth Station9. Kes, Barnsley10. Shadowlands - Oxford and Wye Valley
Pennan was in the news again, this time in August of 2007, when horrendous weather saw the village - located at the foot of cliffs facing into the North Sea - being subjected to mudslides as torrential rain washed material down the hillside and into houses, also flooding the drains and causing sewage problems. Residents had to shelter as best they could until help arrived, using both the hotel and telephone box.
Photograph by Colin Smith. (We’ve visited twice now, and never came away with a single decent pic for various reasons.)
