Detour #114: The road to Skyfall, Scotland, UK
A Caterham (00)7 and the road to Skyfall make for a truly cinematic adventure, reckons Nik Berg.
“Where are we going?” asks M. “Back in time,” replies Bond as the duo head north to lay in wait for the villainous Silva in the final explosive chapter of my favourite Craig-era Bond movie, Skyfall.
After driving through the night from London, Bond and M stop on the road that leads to the titular Skyfall, Bond’s ancestral home. Here the majesty of the landscape momentarily takes over, providing a pause before the ensuing action.
We almost miss the entrance to the Skyfall road as we motor down the A82 which is in itself a spectacular drive. The road is fast and flowing, though there are average speed cameras aplenty in the part of Scotland so it’s best not to get carried away. As we cut through the valley the mountain scenery is magnificent. Scotland simply has a scale like no other part of the UK.
We turn on to the road to the Glen Etive estate and it all begins to close in as we scurry down the single track. Our Caterham (Double-O) Seven is perfect for this narrow gauge path that cuts through forest and fern as it tracks the River Etive. Then all of a sudden we’re at the exact spot where Bond and M stop for their moment of reflection before heading into battle.
The sun is out, so the misty drama is missing, but there’s still an intimacy about this place. The river bubbling over rocks to our left, the mountainside looming on our right. I can see why director Sam Mendes picked this location.
It’s also popular with campers, pitched up by the river or parked in the passing places, occasionally requiring a spot of sketchy reversing to allow oncoming traffic through. The road is undulating, its broken surface and gravel sections doing away with any ideas of high-speed car chase antics, but it still commands full attention even at little more than a trundle.
As a result it takes a good 20 minutes or more to travel the (00)7 miles to the end of the road – a small, crowded car park at the very tip of Loch Etive. It’s a beautiful spot to imagine the end credits rolling, but the only way forward from here is to go back, just as Bond himself said.
Loch Etive