They wish they could vanish them with their wand.
Residents of Glenfinnan, Scotland are up in arms over a tourist craze that’s seen “Harry Potter” fans overrun their famous bridge, putting a strain on local infrastructure.
Originally built to commemorate the Jacobite rising of 1745 that began in their rural village, the Glenfinnan Viaduct was famously the site of the Hogwarts Express in the famous film franchise.
It’s become a must-see mecca for “Harry Potter” pilgrims looking to see the Jacobite train traverse the 21-arched bridge, as it does in the famed film franchise, The National reported.
Since the release of the movies, visitors to the landmark have more than tripled, STV News reported.
While the spike in tourism generates extra revenue for local businesses, it has also put pressure on local roads and limited infrastructure with some visitors even illegally parking on the verges.
Locals are none too keen on the tournami. “Lots of people want to come to Glenfinnan, but they are all coming at the same time,” lamented Hege Hernes, who is the curator of the Glenfinnan Station Museum. “There is not enough space.”
He added, “If everyone comes by car or comes on the same train, there’s not going to be room.”
The North Coast 500 route, which loops around the North Coast of Scotland, has become increasingly congested as many tourists include the viaduct as a detour.
Robin Pettigrew, a 20-year resident of Lochcarron, said, “I’ve had vehicles emptying their chemical toilets in our drains there in front of the houses. This is human feces being dumped in a freshwater drain.”
He added, “There is no relation to the vehicle camping, so there needs to be a fully nuanced discussion on bringing that up to the way that tourism is developing now.”
Last year, Sheffield Hallam University tourism lecturer Dr. Adele Doran told the Express how half a million visitors made the pilgrimage to the Viaduct in 2023 — a monumental number when considering that only 100 to 150 people live in the hamlet.
The lecturer blamed the traffic in part to “Harry Potter” mania and the numerous websites and blogs “telling people the best route for the trip.”
“The roads were getting gridlocked and, like many roads in rural Scotland, they were very narrow [to begin with],” she rued. “They have [used] passing places [for] parking. So the locals couldn’t get anywhere. When the village is so small, people can’t pop to the local shops or get to doctor’s appointments.”
The craze has gotten to the point that attraction staffers have to wear body cameras for fear of getting run over after turning fanatical “Harry Potter” fans away.
Jennifer Northcote, visitor experience manager at the National Trust of Scotland, said one of the problems is “not being able to accommodate everybody and having to say we can’t get you in.”
“In the past we’ve had people being driven at,” she said. “We’ve had verbal abuse. That’s why we’ve got body cams now.”
Still, for some, this so-called tourist invasion is simply the region’s busy season — and they need to plan accordingly for the benefit of both tourists and locals.
“We can’t turn the clock back so what we need to do is ensure that we are working together on solutions to minimize the impact that visitors have on the local community and giving everyone a really good experience of Glenfinnan,” said Emily Bryce of the National Trust. “We are doing that by developing additional infrastructure and by encouraging people to come here by public transport.”
In recent weeks, a new weekend bus service debuted between Fort William and Glenfinnan.
Running four times a day, the shuttle aims to help mitigate the tournami, ease the strain on local infrastructure and also encourage more people to leave their cars at home and travel more sustainably.
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