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The search for Dr Cullen’s parking spot

We may have mentioned that we like movies. Recently we had a booking from the Edinburgh University Harry Potter Society. They also like movies (as well as books). The Glenfinnan Viaduct featured, of course, in the Harry Potter films. That started us thinking about movie location tourism and all the films which have been shot in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland.

Think about Eilean Donan castle and Highlander, the numerous movies which feature the Quiraing on the Isle of Skye, Glencoe and Glen Etive in Skyfall, and the current TV series Outlander. There is something about our scenery which lends itself as an epic backdrop. We highly recommend that you take a look at The Highlands & Skye movie map produced by Visit Scotland

We ourselves are not immune to a bit of movie tourism. In 2009 we decided to take a trip to Washington State in the USA. The plan was to spend some time in Seattle and then take a road trip to Olympic National Park, where we would do some hiking. This coincided with the height of Twilight fever, and we had chosen to visit all the main settings of the novels (the movies weren’t necessarily filmed there). Not only that, but our itinerary had us staying in Forks for two nights at the time of Bella’s birthday.

This was all completely accidental on our part, but it meant that we shared the towns we stayed in with hordes of Twilight fans. Entering into the spirit of things, we had no choice but to have a romantic meal in Port Angeles in the restaurant where Bella and Edward had theirs in the first novel. By the time we reached Forks we were seeing Twilight related sights everywhere. We went to the beaches where they went, we visited the reservation, we drove past Forks High School.

On our last night this led us to seek out Dr Cullen’s parking spot. In the books, Edward’s (fictitious, vampire, adoptive) father Dr Carlile Cullen works at Forks Hospital. The real Forks also has a hospital, and at the entrance it advertises that a parking spot has been set aside for Dr Cullen. We had seen photographs of it online. It looked irresistible, especially after a couple of beers. So we started wandering around the hospital grounds in the dark, searching for the elusive parking space. Maybe it was the beer, maybe they had moved it, but we just couldn’t find it. Eventually we decided that this obsession was perhaps going too far – maybe we would end up shot by a hospital security guard. The search ended unsuccessfully. If only there had been a Twilight movie map we would have succeeded.

We hope that you have more success if you decide to follow the Scottish movie location trail.

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