In Search of the Knopfler Rock

I grew up an avid fan of Dire Straits. That love grew logically to all things related to the group. So of course when the movie Local Hero with soundtrack by Mark Knopfler was released in 1983, it was on my priority viewing list. Funny thing though, at the time I felt the movie was a little ‘meh’. Not sure I really got it. However, years later the movie started to resonate more with me upon each re-viewing. Ultimately, as I have matured through life, I have come to view it as an absolute gem of a movie and certainly in my list of top 5 favourites.

This story is part of our Travel Writing and Reflection series. For another story about a trip to a rock, read Elizabeth’s tale about the Rock of Doon in Ireland.

The idea emerges

This reflection came to a point many years later when I was ultimately inspired (with encouragement from my very best friend, Brendan) to consider a pilgrimage to try to find what I had come to term the ‘Knopfler Rock’. You know the one, right? The one that appears on the cover of the music soundtrack album to Local Hero. It has two of the movie’s main actors sitting around it. ‘Let’s find that rock’ Brendan and I mused. To be honest, it wasn’t a serious proposition at first. Another very close friend, Malcolm, waxed lyrical to us ‘You have to be kidding right? It’s a rock! Probably on some remote beach in Scotland amongst thousands of miles of coastline that you will never find!’ That was the challenge set, Brendan and I agreed.

Answering the riddle and finding the Knopfler Rock became a staged process. First, we agreed the journey – a trip in June 2011 when we both happened to be in Europe for different reasons, but could orchestrate diaries to come together. We would end up sharing a couple of weeks and conduct our pilgrimage during that time. OK, so there were a few other side trips planned around Scotland and Northern England, but finding the Knopfler Rock was foremost on the list of things to do.

Doing our homework

To kick things off, in late 2010 Brendan contacted the photographer who produced the cover art for the album. I can’t recall how this exchange occurred, or how Brendan even achieved contact, but we had some success. The photographer replied to us and even encouraged us to journey. His help was significant, but still a bit vague. ‘We took that shot during a day of publicity shots out and around the beaches near Morar’. Well, that was enough for us!

We next conducted our map reconnaissance in the Mallaig area of Western Scotland. Better known for Harry Potter movie train viaducts than rocks, no doubt. Ruling out Morar Beach, we concluded that Camusdarach Beach was a logical start point. Camusdarach was also noted as being used for a number of other filming locations for the movie. Camusdarach Beach, it turns out, is about 2km south west as the crow flies from Morar and is at the start of a stretch of beaches in that area. But the stretch of area that could be a candidate for the location of the Knopfler Rock stretches for some 3-4km, from Camusdarach Beach itself all the way down to Tigh-na-mara Beach. We ruled out anything south of Tigh-na-mara, but the location could be literally anywhere in that 4km area.

Seeking the rock

We arrived at the Camusdarach Beach car park about 11am on the 4^th of June 2011. Our plan was to just start walking and see what we could find. The beaches were beautiful. The day was brisk, but it was sunny, and people were about, walking the beaches and pottering. As we continued walking along the beaches nothing stood out for us. We were looking for two trees on a hill that were on the album cover, which we could use as a reference point. However, as some 28 years had passed since the photo, we were not even confident that the trees still existed.

At about the 1km mark we had virtually resigned just to enjoy the environment and give up on our mission. Reaching a little beach just south west of what is currently marked as Brackenhill House, Brendan moved down to the foreshore, whilst I retired to the hillside embankment to get a broader look around. We had been moving south and casting our vision only that way. Brendan and I were therefore about 100 metres apart from each other when I decided to look back to the hills in the north, rather than south, and it was then when I spotted two very distinct trees that resembled those in the cover art. Then, recasting my view closer in, I looked directly down to a patch of rocks about 20 metres from me. My heart literally skipped a beat. There, almost within touch, was the Knopfler Rock. Unmistakeable. Unchanged. Exactly as it had appeared on the cover of the movie soundtrack album form 1983. ‘Brendan!!!’ I screamed, and then waved ‘Get up here!!!’.

Why we do these things

And the rest is history. Brendan and I don’t share our friendship emotions too often. Just a sort of close friendship that goes beyond words. Two blokes, mates for life with a friendship spanning some 45 years and still going. But in that moment, we both hugged each other and rejoiced, casting our minds also to our other dear friend, Malcolm who was – and remains – an absolute die-hard Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan. Malcolm would also have revelled in that wonderful moment.

Of course years later my wife still quips at me. ‘You guys are nuts’. That’s OK – she is entitled to her view. It doesn’t change my love for her, nor the way I value my friendship with my very dearest of friends, Brendan and Malcolm. For me, whilst many might see it as a little thing, it remains a highlight of my life. To this day it represents for me not only a conclusion to a terrific little pilgrimage off the beaten track, but an enduring representation of a bond of close friendship. That is worth more than much else that I can imagine. Yes, Brendan and I found what Malcolm had deemed the impossible; we found the Knopfler Rock.