10 Film & TV Locations That Attracted The WRONG Sort Of Attention

Across the road from JK Rowling’s inspirational graveyard is the monument to Edinburgh’s most famous son – Greyfriar’s Bobby.

Bobby was something of a local legend, the Skye Terrier that accompanied local policeman John Gray until his death before standing guard by his master’s grave for 14 years. Cynics can discuss the real reasons Bobby stayed for so long, or whether it was even the same dog for all those years, but it’s a powerful story of loyalty echoed through the years in Jurassic Bark; one of Futurama’s best episodes or in the heart-breaking Hachi: A Dog’s Tale.

Bobby reached the global stage by way of Walt Disney in 1961 when the company adapted Eleanor Atkinson’s 1912 novel, with the tagline “A true story that shook a city is told again to shake the World!”.

Making the pilgrimage to Bobby’s statue is a must on any visiting tourist’s Edinburgh itinerary and a lot of that is down to the House of Mouse. Somewhere along the line, it became an urban myth that rubbing Bobby’s nose brought you good luck.

This was fundamentally untrue. Since then, the poor wee dog’s nose has been worn away by thousands of hands. It even got to a point recently where a fed-up local artist made casts of Bobby’s nose to sell to tourists as an alternative to damaging the dog and donated a portion of the profits to repairing the statue.