Lochaber Series No 16: Torren Lochan
owns the land and ours,” says Viki.
“One of the men started talking about Harry Potter and this area being a perfect film location because of the big trees, the mountains and the water.
I said it is
“The place premiered as Hagrid’s Hut in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, released in 2004. And, they turned our house into their production office.”
WS Thomson didn’t take his pictures from the dam but searched, as he mostly did, for a less obvious location nearby.
He walked 50 yards back on a knoll, now covered with full-grown conifers, looking for a suitable foreground and positioning the lochan’s island more into the centre of his frame.
Alistair explained: “The bigger trees were planted in the early 1900s by Lord Strathcona, a Canadian businessman born in Scotland as John Smith from Elgin, Morayshire.
“He married a Canadian indigenous woman and shipped Canadian-grown trees to Glencoe, recreating her native environment so she could feel at home in Scotland.”
I see a range of conifer trees and a variety of deciduous trees softening the scene, which will create a spectacular colour pallet in autumn.
“The water level is very high now,” Viki adds. “So the island is actually an island.
“When the water level is much lower in summer, the island is a peninsula.”
I conclude that a remake from the same position would result in a wall of shrubbery growing on the white rocks in front.
After return through camera
Viki and Alistair home, I scramble the bushes with my gear looking for a space to have a clear view through my lens. The result is a remake from a lower viewpoint but I am happy anyway.
As I walk back to the car I wonder if Thomson ever climbed the Aonach Dubh and Stob Coire nan Lochan framed in the photographs because in the 1930s he frequently visited the area as a mountaineer.
So far, I have found no proof. Also, this search continues.
Lochaber Series is supported by the West Highland Museum and the Year of Stories 2022 Community Fund. Estelle has published a 64-page book with 30 side-by-side then-andnow pictures, which you can find in local shops or buy online.
More information is available at www.travelintime.uk