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Title: HIGHLAND CASTLES

Reference number: 1784

Date: 1949

Director: filmed by James S. Nairn

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 23.04 mins

Description: Inverness Castle, Castle Stuart, Castle Leys, Eilean Donan, Dunvegan, Achnacarry and Aldourie Castle are all seen together with their surrounding countryside.

Entered in the Scottish Amateur Film Festival, 1949.

See also National Library of Scotland paper archive ref. 2/3/23.

Shotlist: REEL I

Credits (.08); Dominating the town of Inverness stands the present castle, built on the site of its predecessors, each razed in turn by contending armies fighting for Highland supremacy (.19); Shots of the castle and pan from castle to bridge (.47); Within the site of the castle and to the sound of the pipes are held the Highland Games (.53); Shot of pipe band marching down the street (1.16); Shot of pipe band at the Games (1.29); General views of Highland dancing, crowds and pipers (1.45); By mighty bens and open straths, deep glens and torrents fast (1.50); General views of landscape and close-up of ferns (2.06); Shot of a woman by a loch (2.14); General views of loch (2.28); Close-up of waterlilies (2.38); Shot of three women in Highland dress by a waterfall (2.55); Shot of same women crossing a bridge (3.05); Shot of heather (3.09); Shot of a cottage and chickens (3.16); Close-up of hen and chicks (3.23); General views of waves, waterfalls and water (3.43); Shots of boy and dog in countryside and on bridge (4.05); Tilting shot from top of bridge to water and back again (4.20); General views of stream (4.29); Shot of boy sitting on rocks by the stream (4.33); Shot of girl standing on rocks by stream (4.42); Close-ups of stream and ice in stream (4.57); Set among this Highland grandeur are to be found the many ancient castles of the north-Castle Stuart, sometime seat of the Earls of Moray (5.06); Shot of castle (5.13); Tilting shot of castle (5.22); Shot of boy coming out of castle door (5.25); Tilting shot of castle (5.39); Shot of stained glass windows (5.44); Close-up of windows (5.50); Long shot of castle and landscape (5.57); Overlooking ill-fated Culloden Moor is the old castle of Dalcross (6.05); Shot of gates of castle (6.12); General views of castle gardens and family and dogs on grass (6.21); Close-up of engraving on castle walls (6.26); Shot of three boys coming out of castle door (6.30); Shot of man and young girl in gardens (6.44); Close-ups of flowers and bees (7.00); General views of castle garden (7.23); Shots of castle gates closing (7.30); Built on the rocky bank of a Highland stream stands the Castle of Cawdor - the kingdom of MacBeth. (7.37); General views of boy in Highland dress at mountain stream (8.00); General views of castle (8.41); "Grim walls that tholed the dint of Gaelic war, old patient sentinels, their warship done, the Glens no more at feud, the war pipe still, in gardens dreaming take the summer sun" (8.51); General views of castle and gardens (9.27); Close-ups of flowers, butterflies and bees. A fountain (9.49); Leys, on the braes of Drummossie, home of the pedigree Highland cattle (9.54); Shot of castle and Highland cattle (10.02); Shots of herding Highland cattle (10.51); Shot of man and boy in kilts looking at the cattle (11.00); Close-up of Highland cattle (11.10); Shot of cattle (11.14); Shot of woman on a black horse with a dog (11.24)

REEL II

No credits. Shots of man, woman and girl in castle ruins (.18); "Old land of stories, told in crumbling walls, of heather ways and sounding waterfalls" (.23); General views boy and dog walking in landscape of river and countryside (.45); Close-ups of roaring river (1.26); Boy and dog walking in lane (1.30); "The misty bens and heather hills, the sombre forest trees, the lonely glens and mountain rills, the deep clear inland seas". (1.39); General views of same intercut with shots of boy and dog walking through heather (2.27); "And that land had valleys and hoary piles, and marked seas and a thousand isles. Its fields were speckled, its forests green and its lakes were all of a dazzling sheen" (2.38); Shot of car driving along country road (2.50); General views of sea and landscape and houses (3.42); Men gathering hay by tractor and other agricultural machinery (3.47); Countryside (3.53); Boy and dog on road by sea (3.56); On its island in Loch Duich the castle of Eilean Donan has kept its watch for seven hundred years (4.03); Long shot of castle on island (4.11); Tilting shot castle and landscape (4.28); The track leads on, the hills-lochs gleam - over the sea to Skye (4.33); Car on road (4.37); Shot of a ferry carrying the car to Skye (4.50); Car is driven through countryside (4.57); Where the cock-crest of the Cuillin notches - the misty sky. (5.02); Landscape (5.08); Dunvegan Castle, ancient stronghold of the Macleods, mounts guard on its rock above the sea (5.16); Two women and boy wearing kilts enter gates of castle (5.25); Castle exterior (5.42); The Fairy Tower. Tilting shot of same (6.13); Landscape (6.21); Shot of car boarding ferry and disembarking again (6.43); Achnacarry, home of the Chiefs of the Clan Cameron. General views castle, castle grounds and crowd of people (7.17); Near by, Ben Nevis, "Mountain of Heaven". Pan of mountain range and shots of water (7.33); General views of landscape (7.37); At the foot of Loch Ness - Fort Augustus. Shots of town by canal and people walking around (8.01); Shot of cabinet maker and walking stick manufacturer (8.08); General views of town (8.27); Two women and a man looking out to sea (8.32); Seascape (8.44); The mountain flood pours down to Loch Ness, Falls of Foyers (8.49); Long shot of loch (8.58); Shot of people walking along path in country (9.12); Tilt shot of falls (9.30); The towers of Aldourie Castle echo to the march of the Cameron men (9.36); Shots of castle (9.46); Shots of pipe band (10.00); Long shot man and woman looking at cannon (10.02); Two cannon from the galley on Loch Ness 1746. Shot of same (10.11); Castle and people outside (10.20); Pipe band (10.42); "O Bens, mist-hooded and the banging hoods! Straths of four fore-folk and the falling streams; 0 water shining to the quiet west! You are the outcome of an exile's dreams" Shots of mountain tops covered in mist (11.01); General views of landscape (11.15); Shot of a boy looking out to sea (11.23); Shot of sailing boat at sea (11.40)