New Year, New Asgard

How a small Scottish fishing village became a home for refugees from another planet.

Back in summer 2023 my husband and I took a long weekend break to the North East of England. We stayed in the tiny village of Bamburgh, which has a stunningly large castle, completely disproportionate to the population around it. I have a future blog planned about that as one of the main reasons for the holiday was to check out ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ filming locations. When we were planning our trip and pouring over maps, we realised we would be only a short drive away from the Scottish borders and the small fishing village of St Abbs.

St Abbs had been on my ‘to do’ list ever since it was used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as ‘New Asgard’. This being the settlement the Asgardians set up their colony after their world gets destroyed in the 2017 film ‘Thor Ragnarok’. New Asgard | Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki | Fandom First appearing in the 2019 ‘Avengers Engame’ it’s the place the character Thor retreats from the world after the events of the previous film ‘Infinity War’. The fishing village is supposed to be Tønsberg on the south coast of Norway, but in reality it’s on the North East coast of Scotland, south of Edinburgh.

The ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Engame’ movies were filmed at the same time and a lot of that took place Scotland and the North East. I’ve visited a few locations in Edinburgh which I wrote about here and I will have another blog to come which will be about visiting the original Asgard for which Durham Cathedral was used; Avengers: Infinity War: Did you spot Durham Cathedral in box office smash superhero film? – Chronicle Live. It’s easy to see why the production team chose St Abbs as it looks remote but is only about an hour’s drive from Edinburgh.

For us St Abbs was only a 45 minute early Sunday morning drive from Bamburgh. It was odd to be in Scotland so quickly as it would have taken us at least 4 hours if we’d set off from home. A useful tip for anyone visiting – avoid the stress of trying to park in the village itself and instead use the National Trust for Scotland car park at the top of the road. This saves you negotiating a narrow single-track road down the village and hoping that there’s a parking space at the end of it.

There’s also a small National Trust centre with toilets, a café and some local craft shops. It’s a base for those heading out along the coast for walks and birdwatching. From there it’s a short, leisurely walk down to the village harbour and on outskirts of the village you get a great photo opportunity – a ‘Twinned with New Asgard’ road sign. When we were there in late September there was even a pumpkin patch in a farmer’s field on the opposite side of the road.

In the film ‘Engame’ The characters Hulk and Rocket go to visit Thor and there are shots of them on the back of a Land Rover en route. Driving through beautiful scenery they pass a road sign saying, ‘Welcome to New Asgard’. This isn’t the actual road into the village, but more about that later. The local community has obviously embraced the geekiness and have installed their own version on the real road into the village which is a very nice touch. St Abbs ‘twinned’ with Avengers village – BBC News

Walking into the village one of the first buildings you come to is the St Abbs Visitor Centre. The centre has a prime viewpoint which overlooks the harbour. Opening at 10am we were the first ones in that morning. I was delighted to see an Avengers themed display straightaway. I love that the filming isn’t just acknowledged, it’s celebrated, having its own place amongst the history of the village. Quite a contrast to somewhere like Plockton (aka Summerisle in ‘The Wicker Man’) which barely acknowledges its use as a film and television location.

One of the information panels in the centre reads;

Avengers Endgame

In the Spring of 2017, filming began in St Abbs on the final instalment of the Marvel Avengers franchise: Endgame.

St Abbs was chosen as the location of ‘New Asgard’, the fictional home of Thor. Through a mixture of practical effects and CGI, New Asgard was born. Cyrus House on the harbourside was repainted and adorned with signage to create the ‘Cormorant & Tun’ pub and a host of local signs were replaces with real-life ‘New Asgard’ versions.

The locals, sworn to secrecy during filming, were hired as extras, the dive boats repurposed for use by the film crew, the Old School house was occupied by the costume department, and businesses that were unable to operate during filming were compensated. The stars of the film spent time meeting and greeting and made quite an impression on the local community.

Avengers: Endgame has since gone on to become the highest grossing film of all time, and inspired a whole host of film fans from all over the globe to seek out ‘New Asgard’ for themselves.

There’s a TV monitor showing clips on a loop. A few photo panels and displays. There are even replica props that you can take outside and pose with. Which of course had to be done…

It was in the tourist centre that I discovered that the village had also been used as the location of a Harry Styles music video. There was a map on the wall of ‘Edora’ a fictional place the village doubled for. So, there’s a whole different devoted fan base that will make the pilgrimage to the village. I did watch the music video for ‘Adore You’ on YouTube afterwards, it’s a very odd story involving a fish…

It was a quiet Sunday morning in the village, with only a few people about and some fishermen on their boats. My husband and I walked down to the harbour wall and tried to match up screenshots, trying to work out what exists and what was built for the film. They didn’t really have to do much to the village for the ‘Endgame’ other than add some set dressing and a little CGI. We matched up photos of the Hulk talking to Valkyrie. Closer inspection revealed that there’s some creative licence taken with how the Land Rover drives onto the harbour wall, as it comes from a direction where, in reality, there’s no road!

A lot of people think the prominent white building in the harbour was Thor’s house in the film. The building used for the external shots of his home is a 20-minute drive north to Cove Harbour. The New Asgard Location: Where was Endgame filmed? The Avengers in St Abbs (atlasofwonders.com)

St Abbs has a great little café called Ebbcarrs where we stopped for a coffee and just sat and enjoyed the autumn sunshine. There’s also a small lifeboat shop from which I bought possibly the best unofficial MCU tie-in T-Shirt – it has ‘Support New Asgard Lifeboat’ on the front and ‘Save St Abbs Lifeboat’ on the reverse. A great way to encourage Avenger’s fans to part with their cash and support a great cause. My husband bought a coaster of the welcome sign which is now stuck on our fridge.

As the weather was staying dry, we decided to go for a walk along part of the St Abb’s Head coastal path. From the tourist information centre video we realised that the road featured in ‘Engame’ with the actual ‘New Asgard’ sign was potentially walking distance away. In the film they cheat with the geography a little as the road shown is just north of St Abbs and not the actual road down to the village. A useful map at the National Trust centre gave a few different walks to follow and we worked out that we could get there without it being too arduous. Even if we failed it would still be a pretty walk.

The start of the coastal walk was back up towards where we had parked. We turned right at the ‘Twinned with New Asgard’ sign and after only a short distance we reached an area where some filming had taken place. The scene in question is the one where Valkyrie talks to Thor with the village in the background, and where the Guardians of the Galaxy’s ship, the Benatar is parked in a deleted scene.

The weather was quite breezy, and we headed inland a little to avoid some of the path along the cliff edge as my husband is not the greatest with heights and it was a very steep drop down to the sea. The path was clearly marked, we passed a small loch and came out on the road that led up to a lighthouse. Then we had a bit of fun trying to find the right bit of road that featured in the film and where the welcome sign would have been. From there it was a simple walk back to car park along the road. It was a really pleasant way to spend a morning and we felt like we’d been geeky and embraced the great outdoors.

When we see New Asgard again in the 2022 Film ‘Thor ‘Love and Thunder’, it’s grown considerably. There are cruise ships in the harbour, and tourists have descended on the village (oh the irony!). I was slightly concerned that something like that might have actually happened, though on a much smaller scale. It seems the village has got it right though. They carry on as normal, but acknowledge and embrace the interest. Hopefully the village is benefiting financially from its new status as film location. I doubt the number of fans making the pilgrimage there will decline any time soon. I’d happily go back if I’m ever passing that way again it’s a beautiful part of the UK, and somewhere I wouldn’t have gone to if it hadn’t appeared in an Avengers film.