It has been more than 25 years since Mel Gibson painted his face two-thirds blue, pulled on a kilt and howled: “They may take our lives but they’ll never take our freedom.”

The film won five Oscars and made box office history for its bloody battle scenes and literal cast of thousands. 

It also irked many historians for taking creative liberties with the plot.

But now it has been claimed that Braveheart did more to bring visitors to Scotland than its own national tourism body could have achieved in 20 years.

Tom Buncle, who was chief executive of the Scottish Tourist Board at the time, said nothing since has compared to the influence of Mel Gibson’s epic William Wallace tale.

The film, which scooped its Oscars in 1996, inspired millions of people to visit Scotland and has been credited with generating more than £35 million for the city of Stirling alone.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Greetings From Scotland to be shown next week, Mr Buncle says: “I would say honestly, I think Braveheart did more for Scottish tourism than the Scottish Tourist Board could have done in 20 years.

“There were issues about historical accuracy but it was a huge worldwide flag for Scotland saying ‘look at us’ and ‘this is a great place to come to’.

“We jumped on that bandwagon – we handed out postcards with imagery of Scotland to cinema queues while they were waiting to go and see Braveheart.

“The thing that struck me more than anything was just the awareness. You could go overseas and the minute you said you were from Scotland, people would cry ‘freedom’ or ‘Braveheart’.”

Mr Buncle, who now works as an international tourism consultant, said yesterday that nothing had come close to matching Braveheart in the last 25 years.

He said: “The benchmark was always Highlander – before that you could say it was Brigadoon. Local Hero did a little but it was largely an arthouse release internationally. Rob Roy, which had Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, had some impact – but not like Braveheart.

“Since then we’ve had Outlander, (the animation) Brave, some smaller films like Loch Ness, but I don’t think anything came near  touching the impact of Braveheart.
“I remember places like Thailand. 

I used to work in southeast Asia and a lot of people had never heard of Scotland – my goodness, they had after Braveheart. But commercially it was a huge success for Scotland and Scottish tourism.”

Mr Buncle said several factors contributed to Braveheart ‘s influence on Scottish tourism, including the historical story of Wallace, but the single biggest factor was Gibson, who not only starred in but also directed and co-produced the film.

The film grossed £109m at the box office, and in Scottish cinemas it played for up to eight months after the initial launch.

Despite criticism for historical inaccuracy, tourists flocked to Scotland in their droves. 
Visitor numbers to the National Wallace Monument in Stirling rocketed from 80,000 a year to nearly 200,000 in 1996, while the film was also credited with attracting over one million additional visitors to the city at the heart of “Braveheart country”.

He said: “I remember when we were working with the studio in the early days, someone said there were only six people in the world who guaranteed international box office – people like Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford... and Mel Gibson.

There were some historical inaccuracies, but what we saw was a massive commercial marketing opportunity to really put Scotland on the map in a way and in many places that it had never been before. That was our job.

“Had it been an absolute misrepresentation in a heinous way of what Scotland is, well we wouldn’t have gone along with that.

“But Hollywood seldom represents the history of anywhere absolutely accurately so you have a choice – you decide to be an historical purist and take a curatorial approach or you take the opportunity to attract people.

“As a spin-off, it raised the debate in Scotland. We keep saying Scottish history wasn’t taught in the schools but suddenly we had a Hollywood production that inspired an interest in history and got people talking about it in our own country.”

Greetings From Scotland, an hour- long documentary, also highlights the impact of the global pandemic on Scottish tourism, decimating visitor numbers but also providing a pause to reflect on the value and future of Scotland’s tourist industry.

Malcolm Roughhead, chief executive of VisitScotland, says: “There’s light at the end of the tunnel and I’m absolutely confident – absolutely certain – tourism will bounce back. We know there’s a demand for Scotland, it’s really strong, we can see it.”

l Greetings From Scotland, 
BBC Scotland, Tuesday, 10pm.