VisitScotland has published a guide to the films and television series shot across Scotland, from Harry Potter and Skyfall to Outlander. It is a lovely piece of armchair travel. It is also, reading it from Craigston, a reminder of just how much of it happens close to home.

A Hollywood epic on our own coastline

The headline for us is The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan brought his cast and crew to the Banffshire and Moray coast, centring the shoot on the clifftop ruins of Findlater Castle near Cullen. Temporary sets rose above the Moray Firth, and Portsoy, Cullen, Sunnyside Beach, Burghead and Buckie Harbour were all used for sequences involving replica Greek ships and coastal battles.

These are not distant places for our guests. They are the fishing villages and beaches we send people to anyway, for the dolphins, the harbours and the walks. We wrote earlier this year about Matt Damon turning up at The Seafield Arms in Cullen during the shoot, which tells you how close to the doorstep all this was.

Pennan and Local Hero

Long before Nolan, the same coastline gave us one of the best-loved British films of the 1980s. Pennan, with its single row of white cottages beneath the cliffs, was the setting for Local Hero, and the red telephone box still draws visitors four decades on. It is a short drive from the castle and makes a perfect afternoon.

Castles that became other castles

Aberdeenshire is thick with them. Dunnottar, perched on its headland near Stonehaven and about an hour from Craigston, inspired the look of Disney Pixar’s Brave. Craigievar, with its pink harling and fairytale turrets, is said to have been the model Walt Disney had in mind for his own castle. Both are on the Castle Trail, and both are a comfortable day out from here.

And then there is Craigston itself, built in 1604 and lived in by the same family ever since. We are not on screen yet. We are, however, exactly the sort of place location scouts look for, and we would be glad to hear from them.

Making a trip of it

If you are planning a film-locations tour of Scotland, the north east repays the detour. Base yourself at Craigston and you are within reach of the Odyssey coast, Pennan, two castles with screen credits of their own, the Speyside whisky trail half an hour away and more than seventy golf courses. The castle sleeps twelve across six bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and comes with the run of the drawing room, library and kitchen.

Bring the films. The log fire is the right place to watch them.