Schilthorn

Where it sits. The Schilthorn is a 2,970-metre summit in the Bernese Alps, standing on the western wall of the Lauterbrunnen valley above the car-free village of Mürren, in the canton of Berne. It is not one of the giants — it does not reach 3,000 metres and it carries no permanent glacier — but its position is exceptional. It sits directly opposite the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau across the valley, far enough back to see all three in profile rather than foreshortened, and high enough to look down the Lauterbrunnen trench and out over the Swiss plateau. On a clear day the panorama is claimed at some 200 peaks, from Mont Blanc in the south-west to the Black Forest and the Vosges in the north.

The story behind it. The Schilthornbahn was built in stages between 1961 and 1967, running from Stechelberg on the valley floor by way of Gimmelwald, Mürren and Birg to the summit — at the time an ambitious piece of engineering for a mountain with no railway and no road. The summit station and its restaurant were still unfinished, and the company badly short of money, when Eon Productions came looking for a location in 1968. The deal that followed is one of the odder pieces of film-industry history: the production contributed to completing the building, including its helicopter pad and its revolving floor, in exchange for using it as the villain's mountain lair. The restaurant turns a full circle in about 45 minutes, so a meal delivers the whole panorama without moving. The mountain also hosts the Inferno Race, run since 1928 from the summit down to Lauterbrunnen — roughly 15 kilometres and 2,170 metres of descent, the longest amateur downhill race in the world, with fields of over 1,800 starters.

On screen. The Schilthorn is the location of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), George Lazenby's only outing as Bond and, for many, the most mountain-driven film in the series. The summit building plays Piz Gloria, the allergy-research institute run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by Telly Savalas, where a dozen young women are conditioned to carry a biological weapon home to their own countries. Bond infiltrates it posing as the genealogist Sir Hilary Bray. What follows is shot on and around this mountain: the night ski escape down the Schilthorn's flanks, the avalanche, the pursuit into the valley, and the final helicopter assault on the summit station. Related sequences went to the valley floor — the stock-car chase and the ice rink were filmed at Lauterbrunnen — while the bobsleigh finale was staged on a run elsewhere in the Bernese Oberland. The film's name for the building stuck so completely that Piz Gloria became its official name, which is why the mountain has an invented Romansh title borrowed from a screenplay.

What you actually see today. The summit holds the revolving restaurant, an outdoor viewing terrace, the Skyline glass platform and Bond World 007, an interactive exhibition opened in 2013 with props, a helicopter simulator and a bobsleigh seat. A 007 Walk of Fame runs along the terrace. One station down at Birg, at 2,677 metres, the Thrill Walk opened in 2016: a walkway roughly 200 metres long bolted to the cliff face, with a glass floor section, a wire-mesh tunnel and a rope crossing, all hanging over a considerable drop. The cableway itself has been progressively renewed, with a new generation of cabins and stations replacing the 1960s installation. In winter the mountain anchors the Mürren–Schilthorn ski area, whose upper runs are steep, exposed and often wind-scoured; in summer the Northface Trail from Allmendhubel and the paths down to Gimmelwald run beneath it, both giving a head-on view of the Eiger north face across the valley. Mürren itself, at 1,638 metres, is worth an hour on foot: it has no through road, about 450 permanent residents, and a claim on ski history as the place where Arnold Lunn organised the first modern slalom race in 1922.

Getting there and timing. From Interlaken Ost, take the train to Lauterbrunnen, then either the funicular to Grütschalp and the mountain railway to Mürren, or the postbus to Stechelberg and the cableway up. Allow about 90 minutes each way from Interlaken. The full ascent is expensive; Swiss Travel Pass and Half Fare Card reductions apply, and early-morning first-ascent tickets are cheaper. June to September gives the reliable summer panorama and open hiking; January to March gives the skiing. Check the summit webcam before committing to the fare, because cloud sits on this ridge often and there is nothing to see from inside it. Temperatures at the top run 15 to 20 degrees below the valley, so carry a layer even in July.