The "Green Man Inn" from THE WICKER MAN is For Sale!
And it's only $132,000!!!
In Creetown, Scotland, the pub featured in the 1973 film The Wicker Man (called the “Green Man Inn”) is up for sale for the crazy low price of $132K (110 pounds sterling).
As often happens in films, different locations are used for interiors and exteriors that may all be associated with one small area. Set on a remote fictional island called “Summerisle” the film (written by Anthony Shaffer and directed by Robin Hardy) was shot in several small villages near the south coast of Scotland, including Dumfries, Stranraer, Gatehouse of Fleet, Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright, Anwoth and Creetown in Galloway, and Plockton in Ross-shire. Some of these towns have been the sites of guided travel tours and music festivals over the years, as well as an academic conference (which yours truly was invited to but alas, I was unable to attend).
This film is considered an iconic representation of both ancient and modern paganism, and Cinefantastique magazine called it “the Citizen Kane of horror films.” It begins with a Scottish police detective, Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward), receiving a letter about a missing child on a remote island. He travels there alone in a small plane and, as he investigates the case, discovers the residents of Summerisle follow pagan customs that honor nature and ancient gods and goddesses.
One of the iconic locations in the film was the Green Man Inn, where Howie stays while he investigates the case of a missing teenage girl. The inn, with its polished wood bar and wood-paneled walls, was actually the Ellengowan Hotel located in Creetown, Galloway, Scotland. It has a cozy feeling to the pub and a large beer garden outside. It is where many of the film’s most significant events take place…and now the building is for sale.
The hotel has ten rooms and the entire building was renovated during the COVID pandemic when it was closed for several months (like many other businesses in the UK). Pubs struggled to stay open during the pandemic and in some cases villages have banded together to financially support them. I was in a small village in Northeast England in April 2022 where both the pub and the village pub were communally-owned, which allowed them to provide much needed services to the village residents.
The hotel property contains “Public and Private Bars, Beer Garden and Outbuildings, Dining Room, Café and potential Function Room” according to the real estate listing. The price is amazing and this is an exciting opportunity to own a famous cultural artifact and run a nice pub and hotel in a beautiful Scottish town.