Tourism for Dummies

FROM the Hogwarts Express steaming across Glenfinnan Viaduct to the towering Wicker Man being consumed by flames on the Galloway coast, Scotland has produced some of the most iconic images in film history.

But now the national film agency has claimed that our scenery cannot compete with the unspoilt beauty offered by countries such as New Zealand and Canada. Instead, Scottish Screen is promoting a series of jaw-droppingly ugly locations in a bid to make Scotland the grim and gritty film capital of the world.

Greenock Prison, the "rundown" Girvan harbour, the "supremely ugly" Cumbernauld shopping centre, Rosyth Docks and East Kilbride town centre are all being offered to film-makers – while the interior of Airdrie United's Excelsior Stadium is touted as the ideal place to film a prison drama.
One Glasgow street was recently used as a desolate, plague-ridden wasteland for a forthcoming science-fiction epic.

And the Oscar for the ugliest location goes to… Scotland - Scotland on Sunday