(Revised 4/30/23 New pic of shorter man added. Content needs to be revised in light of it. Some points are still speculation. Others have more factual basis.)
How many were there? John Walsh's book says "two full-sized Wicker Men were built, with another just a torso for close ups." I'd amend that to say that the third was just a head and shoulders as seen in this pic.
Flannery brought enough wicker for two men with heads and one spare head. (Brown) Three heads were assembled. (Brown)
One was called "Hero.", a film term ("Hero" props are the more detailed pieces intended for close inspection by the camera or audience." - Wikipedia)
How tall were they? From recently shared drawings by Seamus Flannery, the height would be approximately 28' (Walsh has 29) plus 4' for the pyre so 32'. 19' for head and torso, 9' for legs, 4-6' for pyre beneath them. That was the plan. We don't know if the actual men were much different from that.
- The second man, which used the same torso (arms and head) was 15 feet tall according to Brown's book but since it was the same as the hero man, 19' is more accurate. It was 3 feet off the ground, the legs being much shorter. It was facing toward the shore as opposed to facing out to sea like the hero man, since there is no room for the crew to get in front of it and to film it that way.
One way to distinguish which man was used for the various shots is to look at the front door. The Hero man has a center stick with three light-colored vertical slats beneath three horizontal sticks. You can’t always see all three but the one on our left is fairly visible in long shots.
The shorter one, has smaller sticks on either side of ONE center stick. None of them quite reach the top of the window. The one on the right is somewhat chaffed.
Using that info, all c/u’s of EW from outside the man would have been shot in the shorter man, which makes sense since it would have been easier to shoot those. There are some long shots in the film of the stunt man in the hero man. Probably all of the shots when he is inside it too but we don't know. (I do have a list of the shots we can figure out... but we don't know for all of them.) There are some still pics of EW in the shorter man.
The Aylett man/illustration below was used as a basis.
The men were constructed out of wicker “hurdles” which were typically used to make fences with. "Pyre wood" (long telephone pole-like logs) covered the legs which were telegraph poles. The "Hero" (#1 in this list) had wooden slats added around the legs which are on a raised base covered with hay (as does what they displayed at Cannes which doesn't have the hay.)
Cutcloy Farm supplied straw to help with the burning.
Billy Lyons Sr was head of the fire brigade used to keep the fire under control. He is interviewed in the BBC short Country Tracks (2009).
See more pics in this section.
We now know that only a head and shoulders was used to create the famous final shot!
All were built by the O'Doherty family (aka Keeley Hire/Keeley Hire (Film and Television) Ltd near London. - (Heidi Wilson, Facebook Wicker Man page, 5/20/14.) Jack Sexton was in charge of building it, probably at "the farm in Ponsbourne Park (Hertfordshire ) or if not in nearby Wormley West End where O'Dohertys was based." Jack's son John says two large men were built, the other possibly that tall and a head. Three sizes were built. "Originally it was asked to be 9 feet tall which was virtually finished in the work shop , when a phone call Seamus Flannery said it would have to be bigger. Apparently this happened 3 or 4 more times."
This pic shows parts ready to be shipped to Scotland and the crew who built it.
John Sexton: "Next to my Dad is Terry O'Doherty in the striped top (boss of Keeley Hire ) next to him is his son Terry Michael O'Doherty. Terry Michael helped my Dad with the building. The others I know as family and family friends one being my grandad (far left) were just there for loading we guess." (See more info by clicking on the pic as well.)
John, "I'm sure he said they built the big one , another virtually as big or same size ( he couldn't remember for sure) and another head . He knew nothing about Cannes "but wouldn't mind betting it was the spare one Just with different legs."
Emma Borroff also had that picture and can add this info:
"My family built the wicker man for the original film. They actually built a 2 full bodies then heads for close ups. My grandad is in front with his striped jumper and my uncle is next to him with hands on hips.
Around this time my family used to do animals for film and tv, but my grandad was also a carpenter and collected carts and things. They were built in my family’s garden and the locals used to drive past looking at them from the road. Then they were shipped off to location for filming. I’ve heard so many stories about everyone’s hands being so sore from bending all the wicker to make them.
I’ve got some more photos of somewhere with them on set, so I’ll try and find them all. 😁
Update on how many were made... 2 full bodies and 3 heads which were all made from wicker.
The legs w(h)ere tree trunks for the Bodies to be attached to. The transport company was Dallas transport and in order to get them loaded they had to take the back wheels off the truck then slide them into the truck bed.
My Grandmother took the photo with the family’s Polaroid camera 😉
Yes, both my parents were part of the building team.
The man to the left of my uncle is Bob Cornish and he is a local sign writer.
Sadly both my grandfather and uncle passed away.
Extremely proud. My family have done some of the most amazing things for tv and films and I was lucky enough to follow in their footsteps.
After hearing about how much everyone’s hands hurt from using the wicker I doubt they would rush to make another one 😆
Another quick update before I go interview my mum. She just told me on the phone that the man at the end on the right is Doug Newland.
The man inside was the driver from the second truck. The man next to Jack (in white) was the driver for the truck which is in this photo."
Other details:
#1, the "Hero" man[]
~2 ft tall, legs lodged into separate circular holes with concrete bases, the one for the right leg (facing seaward) showing evidence of a rectangular shaped metallic frame, likely designed to enhance the statue's structural stability.
They are located down a path beyond the circular parking area near the cliff edge. (pic to come)
These two holes are where the Hero man's legs are.
#2, the shorter man[]
The same size as the hero man but on shorter legs. Used for closeups and possibly all interior shots (definitely when Howie is yelling to the islanders and saying his final prayer though), had a singe slab of concrete base with "C 1972" written into it. (Pics of the site can be seen #1, #2, #3,#4.) Approximately 19 feet off the ground. It is south of the other man and has GPS co-ordinates. The stumps were sawed off in 2006.
April 30, 2023 This picture from Simon Wardell surfaced on Facebook.
#3 , just a head and shoulders[]
Just a head and shoulders. This was the one used for the famous last scene where the burning head falls and we see the sunset. (Shot by the second unit.)
This behind the scenes picture from Alan and Linda McGhie (taken by Linda's father Alex) shows the head on scaffolding. We are not sure of the exact location this was done at Burrowhead but it is likely it was between the Hero man and the hole where Howie and Rowan came out of. See this map which is based on Linda McGhie's memory. (Shaffer has said that it took place at the shorter man location. ) It is possible that the head was shaken to encourage it to fall in the appropriate direction. (Look closely at that final scene.)
A trial Wicker Man...
Rumor had it that a trial Wicker Man was built not at Burrowhead but at a secret location near to it next to a body of water. It is more likely that this was the Hero man with water around it which was common at the Burrowhead site. This is mentioned in Alan Brown's book and confirmed by a press photograph showing an almost fully constructed Wicker Man surrounded by scaffolding (up to it's head) standing by, and reflected in, a large calm expanse of water (also described as being on "low ground close to water.") The Wicker Man appears to be on a grassy area and is presumably close to the bank of a lake or large pond. Legs cemented into the ground, says Brown. (The Galloway Gazette mentions one but doesn't say where it was.)
The "trial" Wicker Man:
A wicker man "jr" who went to the Cannes Film Festival. This was the shorter man used at Burrow Head which hadn't been burned there. It was placed in front of the Carlton Hotel on the Promenade de la Croisette. (See this AP footage from :44 - :47.) This is where Roger Corman noticed it and became interested in the movie. Was it burned there? John Alan Simon says it was. Brown says Deeley had it taken down.
