One man’s magic

One man’s ‘magic’ is another man’s engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word.

Robert A. Heinlein

One of my favourite railway routes has always been the West Highland line in Scotland, from Fort William up to the small fishing port of Mallaig. Before the construction of the Skye bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, the ferry from Mallaig to Skye was the main route to the isles from the south.

Even for a railway in such a strikingly beautiful part of the world as this, the line has many pleasures; Leaving Fort William under the lowering gaze of the mighty Ben Nevis; navigating a way round the head of Loch Linnie and passing ‘Neptune’s Staircase’ – the flight of locks at Banavie that heralds the start of the Caledonian canal; Glenfinnan, with its iconic curved viaduct and monument to the ’45; the picturesque Loch Eilt; the unexpected white sands at Morar and the largely untouched fishing port of Mallaig.

It must be some five and a half decades now since I first traveled this route and was appropriately thrilled and captivated by the aforementioned sights. It surprises me not at all that the cinematic nature of the area has attracted film-makers over the years and the use of various locations along the line in one of my favourite films – ‘Local Hero‘ – only adds to its enjoyment.

I am somewhat more ambivalent concerning the use of the Glenfinnan viaduct in the Harry Potter movies. The area has such a rich (and tragic) history that it feels somewhat reductive for it now to be so strongly linked to this recent movie franchise. The upside is that it makes possible a daily preserved steam train service along the route; the downside is that some of those of those who pay the relatively high price to travel thereon subsequently grumble at the shortage of further Potter-esque attractions and cavil that there is nothing much to do once one gets to Mallaig. Mallaig is a working fishing port and the fact that it is so – and has remained relatively unchanged throughout the years – is a big part of its charm.