The Torridon village of Diabaig was a favourite destination of my father's when I was a small boy - I had once caught a hermit crab there and proudly taken it back to Tain in a jam jar - so on our wedding anniversary a few years ago I thought that I'd show my wife that part of Wester Ross.
But as we drove down the steep road into the village, the place seemed terribly quiet.
We parked up and made for the pier - and despite it being a glorious September day, there was no-one out in their garden, no-one walking the dog, and no movement of cars or other vehicles whatsoever.
On our return from the pier we decided to turn right and make for the Moffat Arms for a cup of coffee. There at least we would find human company.
"You know, I don't remember there being a Moffat Arms in Diabaig" I said as we crossed the bridge ("Oh look, what lovely old stone walls they have here") and walked up to the door of the fine old pub. I pushed at the door and we entered - "What on earth?!"
The pub had no back to it. Where there should have been a bar, optics, beer mats, bar stools, there was nothing at all. Just the slope of the hill behind, and two sheep. Ahh, of course!
Going back out again I tapped the lovely old stone walls covered in moss and lichen. They rang hollow - and the bracken growing to the side came away effortlessly when I tugged at it.
We were in a film set. Indeed that was why I had earlier scratched my head at the fire station being sited at the end of the pier: I hadn't realised that Diabaig had had one at all, let alone in such an odd place.
We had been completely fooled.
I subsequently discovered that the reason for Diabaig being deserted was that the entire village was away filming some of the indoors scenes for the 1996 movie "Loch Ness".
Starring Ted Danson and Joely Richardson, it may not have been the biggest smash hit in the history of the cinema, but it did at least have one fairly good line ("You couldn't find a dinosaur at the bottom of a whisky glass"); it reminded the world of the Loch Ness Monster, and it gave the people of Diabaig an absolutely unforgettable experience.
And all of this I thought of on Christmas Day.
Recently I spoke with an elderly and rather grand lady (not from the Highlands, I hasten to point out) and asked her how she was enjoying Downton Abbey.
"Oh goodness me - no. We are not watching it all. You see, I lived through all of that: that was how life was."
My word, she was grand.
"Oh, but not downstairs, you understand"
She didn't see the humour of her remark - and I can tell you that I had the greatest difficulty keeping a straight face.
Anyway.
On Christmas Day I thought of the success that Downton Abbey has been - and almost certainly will be, next series - and how the nation still loves a costume drama, even in this day and age.
Happy with the thought that Matthew Crawley and Lady Mary seemed to have got it together at last, I went to my bed pondering whether we mightn't be able to repeat the trick in the Highlands.
Part of the Downton success is the building itself, in real life Highclere Castle, the seat of the Earls of Carnarvon. It is a magnificent building, a film-maker's dream - and what occurred to me is that in the Sutherland family's Dunrobin Castle we have an equal potential.
Indeed, if one was to add on Carbisdale Castle and the story of how it came to be built "out of spite" by "Duchess Blair", the wicked second wife of the third Duke of Sutherland and her imprisonment in London for six weeks for destroying legal documents, then we would have settings and a tale every bit as good as Downton Abbey (and probably better, because it is true).
Queen Victoria staying at Dunrobin, the Duke ordering the blinds to be pulled down in his private railway train as it passed Carbisdale Castle so that he wouldn't have to see his wicked stepmother's house; "Duchess Blair" being supplied with goodies from Fortnum & Mason while she was banged up - oh, what a film it could all make!
It would fairly put Sutherland on the map.
Highclere Castle's visitor figures have rocketed since Downton Abbey was first screened - it would be a major boost for the East Sutherland local economy if we could do the same with Dunrobin Castle.
Happy New Year.
