Are you into watching unconventional horror movies? Have you ever heard about The Wicker Man? If not, then you can know everything about this classic horror movie in this piece. Furthermore, I’ll also let you in on where was The Wicker Man filmed.
The Wicker Man is a British supernatural horror flick that was released in the early 70s. This riveting movie left such an impression on the audience’s mind that some people even considered The Wicker Man to be The Citizen Kane of horror films.
This bone-chilling film stands as the first installment of The Wicker Man film series. Robin Hardy was at the helm of affairs, while Anthony Shaffer later joined this project as a screenwriter. Interestingly enough, Peter Snell solely produced this entire project.
The basic premise of The Wicker Man revolves around the character of Howie, an English police officer stationed in Scotland. The story gets interesting when the English Sergeant arrives in a small Scottish town looking for a mysterious girl who apparently never existed.
If you’d like to know more about this iconic thriller flick, then all you need to do is read this piece till the end. I am now going to discuss in detail where was The Wicker Man filmed.
Table of Contents
Where Was The Wicker Man Filmed? Let’s Know This Horror Thriller Flick Closely!
As I mentioned before, the story of The Wicker Man is set in Scotland. In fact, the shooting of this intense thriller flick was also done in the same country. We’ll discuss this in detail and check the specific filming locations. But before we get into all that, let us first discuss what happened before the filming locations were selected by the director. In other words, we are now going to take a closer look at the pre-production process of The Wicker Man.
So, during the initial phase of production, Hardy started looking for a skilled scriptwriter for this project. After several rounds of meetings with Anthony Shaffer, the director was finally able to convince him to join this project. Even the idea to write an unconventional premise for this project was given to Hardy. After all, this was done, the director and a couple of other members of his team began looking for suitable filming locations in and around Scotland.
The production budget of The Wicker Man was less than $1 million. However, this didn’t stop the director from using the best filming locations in Scotland. In fact, the director was ready to cut down on other expenses just to be able to shoot the entire film in Scotland. A couple of weeks later, all the filming locations were selected by the team members. Hardy checked the locations for the second time and then asked the production members to start preparing for the shooting process.
The principal photography of The Wicker Man began in the second week of October 1972 and continued until the third week of November of the same year. The entire shooting process lasted for more than a month. However, the production members captured a number of outdoor shots in different locations in Scotland. The entire process was smooth, mainly because the director made sure to complete the preliminary formalities, like arranging the logistics in time and getting all the shooting permits.
The majority of the scenes were filmed in and around Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland. While some pivotal scenes of The Wicker Man were also filmed in the South Ayrshire region. As soon as the shooting process was over, the production members began working on the promotion of the film.
Let us now discuss in detail where was The Wicker Man filmed.
Scotland | UK

The opening scene of the film, where we see the character of Howie for the first time, was filmed in the Highland region of Scotland. The scene where we see the lead character arriving in Summer Isle was filmed in Plockton, Highland. Other important scenes of The Wicker Man were filmed in Luce Bay, Dumfries & Galloway. The exterior shots of Green Man Inn were filmed outside of Cally Estate Offices. However, the interior scenes of the Green Man Inn were captured inside Ellen Gowan Hotel, located in Creetown.
Additional outdoor scenes of the movie were filmed near High Street, Kirkcudbright. The sequences depicting the interior shots of Rowan’s mother’s shop were filmed near Old Police Station, located at Kirkcudbright. The climax scene of the movie depicting the incarceration of the Wicker man was filmed near Burrow Head, Isle of Whithorn. After these scenes were filmed, the production members captured some more scenes and then moved to the next filming location.
The remaining interior scenes of The Wicker Man were filmed inside a studio in Glasgow, Scotland. If you’re planning to visit Scotland later this year, then you can look up Edinburg, Glasgow, Skye, Inverness, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews.
Let us now take a close look at the plot of this bone-chilling horror film. Meanwhile, you can also read about The Tailor.
Plot Of The Wicker Man | What’s It About

The story of The Wicker Man revolves around the character of Sergeant Howie, a Scottish police officer. At the beginning of the movie, the lead actor starts pursuing the trail of a mysterious girl and ends up arriving in the Highlands region.
As the story progresses further, Howie continues his investigation and finds riveting details about the case. Soon, the potential witnesses confirm that the girl never existed in the first place. Howie gets shocked after the real identity of the mysterious girl gets revealed.
Watch The Wicker Man and find out the full story!
Final Words
This is the last segment of the piece. We’ve already discussed where was The Wicker Man filmed and other intriguing details of this horror flick. If you’re interested in finding the filming locations of similar movies, then do tell us in the comments section.
However, if you’d like to read other articles like this, then you can browse through other entertaining blogs on Old Flames Candles.