As I theorized last year, given the way Burton works, it seems most likely that any location shooting, if any is actually done (Burton often loves to work solely on studio sets), will be done in England. And I can't say that I find that prospect to be in any way a bad thing because there are dozens of great locations in England that would serve perfectly as Collinwood. Particularly a Collinwood that, like the '91 series' version, was disassembled from its English location and reassembled in Collisport.
As far as the older gentleman's story about fans going up to the tower goes, unfortunately, a few fans come to mind who wouldn't have given a second thought to breaking the law and doing just that. They're often under the impression that the rules don't apply to them, so sneaking up to Lyndhurst's tower would simply be par for the course for them. And the really sad thing is that by acting as recklessly as they do, they give all DS fans a bad name and make the bad impression that that gentleman seems to have of all of us.
But it's probably needless to say that they don't care about any of that. All they care about is the bragging rights of having done things that others haven't. Though what they don't seem to realize is that, far from being envious, most fans who are aware of their antics simply see them for the foolhardy people that they actually are...
But be that as it may, thanks so much for sharing your photo(s) and blog with us.