Image of Milky Way captured from St Ninian's Cave where horror movie The Wicker Man was filmed

An amateur photographer captured an image of the Milky Way at the cave where horror film The Wicker Man was filmed.

Sylvan Buckley, 46, pictured the moment the core was seen through the clear night sky at St Ninian’s Cave, Dumfries and Galloway, where scenes for the 1973 flick were shot.

The small sea cave was a retreat of St. Ninian, Scotland’s first saint, and from the early Middle Ages, has been a place of pilgrimage.

Mr Buckley, from Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, checked the weather and saw there would be a clear, cloudless sky near the cave creating the perfect condition for the starry snap.

He set his camera on a tripod at the back of the cave facing out into ‘complete darkness’ and took the picture around 5am on Saturday.

Mr Buckley told how it was “eerie” being in the middle of cave on his own in the pitch black but said the experience as “amazing”.

He said: “I checked the weather and saw that I had a cloudless clear sky to the south-east where I knew the core would be rising.

“I saw the cave faced almost perfectly with where the core was going to rise on the horizon so packed a bag and headed down to give it a try.

“It was eerie being down here in the middle of nowhere on my own in the pitch black but an amazing experience all the same.

“I set my camera on a tripod at the back of the cave facing out towards the entrance where I knew the milky way core would be visible.

“The cave entrance was in complete darkness and just a silhouette framing the milky way in the night sky.

“I used my phone LED light as well as my spare head torch to illuminate each side of the cave entrance, and to give a sense of scale I positioned myself in the scene.”