Cregneash, on the British Crown Dependency Isle of Man, is well known in tourist circles as the home of the National Folk Museum, an outdoor museum showcasing the Manx way of life in past times. For the makers of the 1998 comedy film Waking Ned, also known as Waking Ned Devine, the compact and traditional nature of the village provided the perfect backdrop for this amusing tale about the fictional Irish village of Tullymore, where two friends from the village embark on a quest to find out the identity of a lottery winner believed to be living among them, but who turns out to have died with winning ticket in hand, prompting the friends to devise a plot to impersonate the winner. The nature of the film has been compared to Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero, with similarly stunning scenery.
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| Cregneash HarryKelly'sCottage. Photo by Andy Stephenson, via Wikimedia Commons |
The scene in which a chicken dinner is organised with the aim of finding out who the winner is was filmed in the Old Mill, in Glen Road, Laxey. The main attraction for visitors to Laxey is the enormous water wheel called the Lady Isabella, and from here there is a walk down to the sea front, which takes in the mill buildings where the scene was filmed.
The thatched one-storey cottage where the Ned of the title is discovered dead in bed was filmed not in Cregneash, but in a location near Niarbyl, Dalby, on the west coast between Peel and Port Erin. The scene in the phone kiosk done up in green to look Irish, where the two friends phone the lottery organisers to make their claim, was filmed on Marine Drive, a scenic road to the south-west of Douglas, leading to Douglas Head. Visitors using the road are taken through a distinctive castellated ‘gateway’, which used to be a toll gate. The beach at Niarbyl, below Cregganmooar, is where the two pensioners go for a skinny dip prior to the arrival of the man from the lottery, who swoops in by helicopter, with some attendant fine views of the coast.
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| Laxey |
The thatched one-storey cottage where the Ned of the title is discovered dead in bed was filmed not in Cregneash, but in a location near Niarbyl, Dalby, on the west coast between Peel and Port Erin. The scene in the phone kiosk done up in green to look Irish, where the two friends phone the lottery organisers to make their claim, was filmed on Marine Drive, a scenic road to the south-west of Douglas, leading to Douglas Head. Visitors using the road are taken through a distinctive castellated ‘gateway’, which used to be a toll gate. The beach at Niarbyl, below Cregganmooar, is where the two pensioners go for a skinny dip prior to the arrival of the man from the lottery, who swoops in by helicopter, with some attendant fine views of the coast.
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| Cottages Niarbyl - geograph.org.uk - 777580. Photo by Chris Gunns, via Wikimedia Commons |
James Nesbitt has the unenviable role of a pig farmer known as Pig Finn, whose lingering pig smells make it difficult to woo the ladies. The real life location of Finn’s farm is at Raby Mooar, just north of Glen Maye, and Lizzie’s house is also there. Glen Maye is typical of the beautiful leafy glens found in various parts of the island, with a waterfall and paths leading down to the beach. Another glen seen in the film is Glen Mona, one of various locations featured in the nude motor-cycle ride.
The Isle of Man can be reached by ferry from the mainland, and also from Belfast, and it has an airport linking it to various destinations in the UK and to Dublin.
Map of the island
The Isle of Man can be reached by ferry from the mainland, and also from Belfast, and it has an airport linking it to various destinations in the UK and to Dublin.
Map of the island
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