File 007 · Bernese Oberland, Switzerland

Schilthorn

A half-built restaurant on a 2,970 m summit. A film crew with money to spend. A deal was struck.

Why go

A revolving summit restaurant facing the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The film's budget helped finish the building.

The place

A British invention

Modern downhill racing grew up partly here. In 1928 a group of British skiers in Mürren started the Inferno, a race of almost 15 km from the Schilthorn summit down to Lauterbrunnen. It still runs every January, with nearly 2,000 entrants.

The car-free village

Mürren, the village below, has no road. Everything arrives by cable car or mountain railway, which is why it still feels like the 1960s.

The valley of waterfalls

Lauterbrunnen, at the foot of the cliffs, has 72 waterfalls. Tolkien walked here in 1911 and it is said to have inspired Rivendell.

The shoot: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Piz Gloria is the villain's mountain clinic.

The deal

When the location scouts found it in the late 1960s, the summit restaurant was only partly built. The producers paid towards finishing it in return for using it as the villain's mountain clinic. The building opened in 1969, the same year as the film.

Fiction meets fact

Ian Fleming put his Piz Gloria in the Engadine, in eastern Switzerland. The film moved it to the Bernese Oberland, and the real restaurant took the fictional name and kept it.

What's real

The ski chases were shot on the slopes around Mürren and the Schilthorn. George Lazenby, in his only outing as Bond, spent much of the shoot on these mountains.

Stand here

Walk out onto the summit terrace with the revolving restaurant behind you and the three great peaks ahead.

46.5585, 7.8353

Visit

Best: First cable car of the day, before cloud builds. Access: Cable car is ticketed. Restaurant open to all. Getting there: Cable car from Stechelberg via Gimmelwald, Mürren and Birg. The Skyline Walk at Birg is worth a stop.

Taste: Rösti, Älplermagronen (alpine macaroni with potato, cheese and apple sauce) and a glass of Swiss white at the summit.