Burrowhead

About Burrowhead

The cliffs at Burrowhead are the southernmost point in the Machars. You can gaze across to the Isle of Man, the Mull of Galloway (the southernmost point in Scotland) or even Cumbria and Ireland on a clear day. The area was used for a large army camp in World War II and even now you may see brick buildings which are important archaeological remnants of wartime activity. It was built as a training camp for Anti-Aircraft gunners : radio-controlled aircraft would fly over the sea in front of the guns, which practised bringing them down, and patrol boats, launched from the Isle of Whithorn, would retrieve them. The camp was decommissioned after World War II, and the holiday park was built in its place. In the 1970’s, the most dramatic scene of the cult horror film, The Wicker Man, was filmed here, when Sergeant Howie was sacrificed according to pagan rites, in a giant burning wicker effigy. Until some years ago, the stumps of the film prop Wicker Man’s legs were visible on the cliff edge.