In the busy little town of Portree, we rummaged through the Renaissance Antique Bookshop, above the Gathering Hall, for bargains. We lunched on the local fishermen’s catch on the quayside, the fishing boats and pleasure craft bobbing on the crystal blue water. Heading home, we’d take a five-mile detour merely to buy superb home-dyed wools and yarns from Eva Fleg Lambert. Lambert set up a studio in 1971 weaving rugs, using skills learned while living in Turkey. Nowadays, using her own soft-fleeced flock of sheep, she produces raw knitting yarn spun by hand. Anita would snaffle up a clutch of skeins, then magically transform them into a sweater for a grandchild or a friend.

A natural raconteuse, Anita entertained with stories of her wilder days, when Keith did this or Mick said that, laughing her hoarse laugh and lighting yet another cigarette. The fog inside the car was much denser than the Scottish mist outside. But nicotine is now her only addiction. We’re both insomniacs, and one morning, hearing her shuffling around her room, I went downstairs to make us some coffee. I took it to her in her room and found her attempting a hellishly complicated yoga asana, arms and legs contorted, eyes screwed up in concentration, with a newly lit cigarette clamped between her teeth.

After four weeks, our filming at Duncraig Castle finished on Midsummer Night, in appropriately dreamlike circumstances. Korine wanted to shoot his final scene — a heartbreaking, elegiac tableau vivant featuring the entire cast processing through the night, singing “Cheek to Cheek.” We were so far north that we had to wait until 11:30 for total darkness to envelop the valley. By the time the shot was in the can, the nighttime chorus of owls, frogs, and dogs had given way to the dawn chorus of blackbirds, cuckoos, and seagulls. The sun rose with a slash of crimson in the eastern sky. The cast and crew silently embraced, in the slightly embarrassing way that we do. By 5 a.m. we were in our beds, and the adventure of shooting Mister Lonely was over.

"Highlands Fling" originally appeared in the May/June 2008 issue of Culture+Travel. For a complete list of articles from this issue of Culture+Travel, click here.