Keiss and Lybster are jewels in The Crown
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TWO Caithness fishing villages are playing host to cast and crew of big-budget Netflix drama The Crown.
Lybster has just had scenes filmed for the royal drama in which set-builders transformed the main pier with building façades to make it look like Port Leith in the Falklands.
The scenes shot there refer to an incident in 1982 that proved to be a precursor to the Falklands War when Argentinians were discovered salvaging scrap metal.
The construction team were also busy at work around Keiss harbour on Wednesday afternoon for another scene in which Lord Louis Mountbatten is assassinated. The harbour is being used to create a mock-up of Mullaghmore in Ireland – the site where Lord Mountbatten was killed in an explosion 40 years ago.
On August 27, 1979, IRA member Thomas McMahon managed to sneak onto the Shadow V boat, positioning then detonating a radio-controlled bomb on the vessel on which Mountbatten and six friends and relatives were fishing.
The boat was destroyed by the blast and, though Mountbatten was pulled alive from it, he died of his injuries when brought to shore. Fourteen-year-old Nicholas Knatchbull also died in the explosion, as did 15-year-old local crew member Paul Maxwell.
Lady Brabourne died in hospital the following day.
A replica of the Shadow V is in the harbour and is to be "blown up" in the bay some distance from the shoreline.
Location manager Peter Gray said: "As we are recreating parts of the explosion – we will have two or three attempts of this.
"There will be black smoke projected out of mortars, which will be attached to our boat. Then we will have a fireball effect, which is where we will have a 30-metre exclusion zone from our boat.
"This will see some of the debris fly off from the boat and we shall collect any waste left in the water."
The road leading to the harbour will be closed when the scene is filmed on Sunday and Mr Gray urged the public "not to be distressed as it is a simulated stunt".
Local man Peter Sinclair, who runs Sinclair Bay Lobster Company Ltd, said that over 300 cast and crew were due to descend on the village.
"I'm going to be an extra in the film along with 11 other boys with boats in the harbour," he said. "It means we can also move our boats if need be."
Mr Sinclair said he got "costumed up" by a team in Aviemore for the episode and that the parking area outside his business will be filled with production vehicles during the filming period.
"The whole of Keiss is going to be taken over for this. It's really great for the village and I've been told there will be some big name stars coming here," he said.
