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As the morning rainclouds clear like gunsmoke from the surrounding mountains, the tiny village of Glenfinnan fills once more with the scent of rebellion.

On the hillsides high above, vast crowds trample the sodden earth in their eagerness to gain a vantage point as the clock ticks down. Some have been here for an hour or more, others only make it with seconds to spare.

At 10.45am, a crackle of excitement spreads through their ranks as they spot the first familiar white puffs push round a distant corner.

The moment they have travelled, in some cases, half the world to see begins to unfold before their eyes; an elderly steam train made famous by a fictional boy wizard sounds its whistle and chugs merrily over the majestic Victorian viaduct just 100 yards away.

The response is extraordinary: the watching crowd cheers and waves and the train's passengers wave back; some on the bankside break branches off trees and fashion makeshift wands from twigs to twirl in the air.

And as the train vanishes, a spontaneous burst of applause breaks out on the hillside, while some cannot hold back tears. The whole event lasts barely two minutes but the sense of elation is palpable as the phalanx of spectators heads back down the badly eroded footpath, which already resembles a muddy motorway.

Far below, in the village, the mood is less exuberant. Many locals in this normally peaceable community of just 150 souls dread the arrival of the summer hordes and what has become an annual war of attrition over the suffocating traffic problems they cause.

Glenfinnan was once famous as the spark for conflict – the spot where a Jacobite army mustered at the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard at the head of nearby Loch Shiel.

More than 650,000 people a year now visit the Glenfinnan Viaduct, making it the most popular visitor destination outside Glasgow and Edinburgh

The 'Harry Potter effect' has placed a massive strain on the area's fragile environment and left despairing locals fearing that overtourism has reached dangerous levels

The haunting monument to the 1745 Jacobite Rising is now largely overlooked in favour of the Jacobite steam train, which plies the West Highland Line to Mallaig. Pulling its distinctive red liveried heritage carriages, it shot to fame when it was used as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.

In a scene from 2002s Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Harry and Ron fly Mr Weasley's enchanted car over the bridge as the Hogwarts Express passes beneath them while billowing steam. With that, the viaduct's fate was sealed.

More than 650,000 people a year now visit the Glenfinnan Viaduct, making it the most popular visitor destination outside Glasgow and Edinburgh.

But the 'Harry Potter effect' has placed a massive strain on the area's fragile environment and left despairing locals fearing that overtourism has reached dangerous levels.

Faced with swarms of tourists clad in raincoats as colourful as any clansman's plaid, conflict has returned to Glenfinnan.

This time, the battle lines have been drawn over something almost as rare as a prince's claim to a throne – a prized parking space.

With more than 1,000 daily arrivals trying to squeeze into the 180 spaces at the town's two main car parks, the full signs are routinely put up as early as 9.30am.

Anxious not to miss the train as it passes through twice a day in the summer months, drivers have been accused of resorting to 'dangerous, obstructive and illegal parking' on the grass verges and bends.

When the Scottish Daily Mail visited last week, motorists were spotted parking across pavements and grass verges despite the presence of double yellow lines. Many verges along the main A830 Fort William to Mallaig route have been badly churned up by vehicles repeatedly parking illegally on them. One car was even spotted pulled up on a pavement next to red council roadworks sign saying, 'Do Not Park Here.'

Villagers report numerous occasions they have attempted to leave their homes only to find a stranger's car parked across their driveway, blocking them in while the car owners head off to spend the day sightseeing. Others have found bollards removed and 'No Parking' signs ignored. There are constant complaints of littering and, worse, of outdoor toileting.

The police attempt to enforce the law and a recent blitz saw 11 drivers handed fixed penalty notices in a 'short space of time' in one afternoon for parking dangerously.

Every local attraction, including the Glenfinnan Transport Museum, now has parking attendants to prevent indiscriminate parking.

Every local attraction, including the Glenfinnan Transport Museum, now has parking attendants to prevent indiscriminate parking

Glenfinnan remains a victim of its own accidental fame with many wishing they could wave a magic wand and make some of the more thoughtless Muggles disappear.

'Out of frustration, they will abandon their vehicles in the most dangerous spots,' said Shaun Entwhistle, a local BnB owner who also sits on Glenfinnan Community Council.

'We absolutely don't want to lose the tourists, but it's a question of safety. There have been efforts made in the past with painting double yellow lines, but they just park there anyway. We had bollards installed on the worst bit by the village on safety grounds but they just park further away and walk along the road.

'They don't seem to realise quite how busy and fast that road is. Outside Glenfinnan, it's a 60mph limit and you have lots of big lorries and buses using it and you do worry that unless things change someone could get killed or seriously injured.'

Mr Entwhistle added: 'But for the Harry Potter fans, this is their passion, their obsession, and they are prepared to walk a long way to see the train.

'They often dress up in cloaks and carry wands and cast spells and they seem to be having a lot of fun, so I sometimes wonder whether they haven't got the right idea after all.'

Fans of the films, and JK Rowling's original books, are certainly prepared to travel to scratch their itch. Among the gathering on Wednesday were tourists from Japan, China, India, South America, Spain, France and Italy.

Linda Heynck, from Cologne in Germany, wore her favourite Harry Potter scarf and watched clips from the films to get her in the mood. She and her husband, Leon, both 30, were on a tour of the movies' locations, including Alnwick Castle and Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire.

She admitted she knew nothing of Glenfinnan's significance as a hotbed of Jacobite radicalism or the viaduct's own illustrious history as the longest concrete railway bridge in Scotland towering 100ft over the River Finnan.

It had not registered that the majestic sweep of 21 huge arches was constructed in the 1890s using pioneering technology by Scottish business leader Robert 'Concrete Bob' McAlpine.

Pottermania was everything and she was moved to tears by the experience, saying: 'I saw the first film when I was eleven and read the books later. I like to get in a world in which you cannot see your reality. It's a very magical world.'

If only the solutions to this unruly tourist boom were as easy to conjure up.

Patrick Warren has tried many options to dissuade people from parking on the driveway outside his converted schoolhouse home.

Mr Warren, a paediatric surgeon from Ohio, has tried using bollards and has a gate and warning people not to trespass. 'People are fairly audacious. They will park there anyway,' he said. 'I have woken up to find myself blocked in on occasion.

'My wife and I have been coming here for 25 years. I bought this in 2022 and it has got progressively busier. I come here for the access to the outdoors; there's two Munros from my back garden and I like kayaking and walking.

'I was warned by my solicitor not to buy here because of the tourists but when I'm here I'm on holiday so it's less of an inconvenience.'

Further up the road, some locals have adopted the 'if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em' approach by charging locals to park in their driveways. One enterprising resident was happily charging £10 a car.

Other cars crammed into a small layby close to a blind corner on the A830, the so-called 'Road to the Isles'. The boot of one car jutted out slightly into the traffic, forcing passing motorists to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it or oncoming vehicles.

Nearby, cars were being admitted to the layby by Glenfinnan Church at £5 per stay – the same charge to use the main community-owned car park and the neighbouring Glenfinnan Visitor Centre car park, operated by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

At the kirk car park, the Glenfinnan Coffee Company runs a coffee stop from a converted horsebox and collects parking money for the church.

As Jim Gillies, 48, who set up the premium coffee-roasting business on the family croft with brother Iain, observed wryly: 'The last time such a big thing happened here was in 1745 and the biggest thing since seems to be the 10.45 from Fort William.'

Like many locals, he readily accepts he has benefited from the tourist boom and understands why people come. 'People see this thing on film and now they want to see it for themselves.'

In a scene from 2002's Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron fly Mr Weasley's enchanted car over the bridge as the Hogwarts Express passes beneath them while billowing steam. With that, the viaduct's fate was sealed

Mr Gillies, an arborist to trade who once worked in films, including on the Harry Potter series, added: 'I don't blame the individual who's just trying to tick something off the family to-do list when they come on holiday, and you have VisitScotland and others pushing hard for people to visit these places.

'They can be really stressed out; they've come from all over the world and just want to see this thing and there is a time limit on when the train's passing which only adds to the stress. These are not bad people, but it's the group mindset thing and they start copying each other, which is when the problems really start.'

He suggested that those who found it hardest to cope were those who lived here before Potter became a mania: 'A lot of people moved here to retire, from places like Edinburgh and down South and it's not really what they wanted. It's quite an ageing community, so a lot of them are really struggling with the change.'

One elderly resident, who asked not to be named, said: 'There is a sense of entitlement among some visitors which has led to a great deal of frustration.

'We want to find ways to improve things, but you can't just tell people not to come. The police do what they can, when they can but they cannot be everywhere.'

That same feeling of entitlement apparently saw Potter fans force the relocation of a new £430million undersea cable on the Pembrokeshire coast after the original route ran through the spot where, in the film adaptations, Dobby the House Elf is buried. This was seen as a mark of outrageous disrespect.

Parking in someone's driveway, presumably, is not. Nor is going to the toilet by the roadside. Resident Connor Armstrong Leighton told the Press and Journal: 'For a long time, roadside poop was a big problem. People were defecating everywhere, it was horrendous.

'The local community get nothing out of [the tourists being here]. I don't blame JK Rowling, I blame Warner Bros because they picked this site for their films and they have created a monster.'

Undaunted, Glenfinnan is mounting a rearguard action with plans to buy land from Scottish Forestry and Land two miles away using proceeds from the car park charges for a new park-and-ride facility from where people can walk, borrow an ebike or catch a shuttle bus to the viaduct.

But previous pleas to use public transport and offers of local discounts for those with a valid bus or train ticket have largely fallen on deaf ears.

The NTS has plans for a £6million upgrade to its facilities, which were built in the 1960s to accommodate 100,000 annual visitors.

Emily Bryce, NTS Glenfinnan operations manager, told the P&J numbers had exploded in the past 15 years: 'We went from about 180,000 visitors and last year we had around 650,000,' she said. 'So far, this year we're about 10 per cent busier. Every year we think surely it can't get any busier than this, but it does.'

At some point, surely, we will reach maximum Potter – perhaps new visitors will themselves be put off by the crowds.

And anyone who cares to consult the history of Glenfinnan will know how mass gatherings usually turn out.

For the followers of a Young Pretender, it did not end well. Fans of a boy wizard should take note.