- swashbuckling adventures, dark comedy and even a large wooden rabbit

Scotland's struggle in the old Wars of Independence had a strong focus on Stirling, with part of the story re-told in Hollywood style in Mel Gibson's Braveheart.

Stirling Castle alone has appeared in at least half a dozen major films and TV series, in a variety of disguises. Tunes of Glory (1960) starred Alec Guinness; Kidnapped (1971) featured Michael Caine. More recently - and along with a good number of other locations in the area - the Castle turns up in Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat (2001) a Bollywood tale of three eligible bachelors. Before that, you can catch it in Gregory's Two Girls (1999) the (less satisfactory, some say) sequel to Bill Forsyth's original wildly popular Gregory's Girl. The Castle also appears in the opening sequences of To End all Wars (2001), with Robert Carlyle. Perhaps the earliest record of a location role for Stirling Castle is The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots - filmed in 1923. It was, of course silent and in black and white, and starred Fay Compton.

South of Stirling, the moor and woods of the Campsie Fells became a, slightly surprising, substitute for North Carolina in the mini-series The Last of the Mohicans (1971), based on James Fenimore Cooper's famous novel. Locations in Balfron, tucked into the hills, feature in One Last Chance (2004), a dark comedy about how the finding of a lump of gold should have transformed the lives of three young men anxious to escape their Highland village. Dougray Scott is the producer and has a role in it.

North of Stirling, the Burgh Chambers in Dunblane became the police station which held John Hannay in The 39 Steps in this 1959 version which starred Kenneth More in the title role making his escape from custody by jumping from a window into a passing hay-cart!

A little eastwards, Doune Castle stands with its massive curtain walls adding atmosphere to a location every inch a medieval castle. Small wonder it has attracted the attention of film makers. The 1952 version of Ivanhoe was here - with stars Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor in the cast. However, to British cinema-goers at least, the fortress is probably most often remembered for its role in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and that moment of sheer daft brilliance when a giant wooden rabbit is built as a means of gaining entry to the French-held castle. (The comment shouted from the battlements that 'Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries' had upset King Arthur and his knights.) It is said that Monty Python fans still turn up here with coconut shells with which to make horses hoof sound effects!