09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
The North Wales beauty spots that leave Hollywood swooning
As we commonly favour the iconic imagery of Paris, New York, and LA in cinema, a less expected location is gaining cinematic fame. With its rugged coastlines, towering mountains, and historic castles, Wales serves as an idyllic setting for many narratives, catching the eye of streaming behemoths.
And North Wales has landed one of the biggest shows with the Game of Thrones prequel, House of Dragons. HBO took a new tack for their House of the Dragon series, shifting base from Northern Ireland to Warner Bros Leavesden Studios in England.
However, they've captured several exterior scenes across Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and European locations such as Spain and Portugal.
Northwest Wales was prominently featured in the second season, with eight locations utilised. Half of these were situated on Anglesey, including Beaumaris and Porth-y-Cŵch.
Llanddwyn Beach, located near the village of Newborough, was a popular filming spot and is believed to have served as the backdrop for parts of Dragonstone.
Excitingly for Welsh fans, the breathtaking landscapes of North Wales are slated to play a pivotal role in Season 3. The region's rugged mountains, dramatic coastline, and historic castles provide the ideal dramatic scenery for the fantasy series.
The series delves into the history of House Targaryen, chronicling their struggle for the Iron Throne 200 years prior to the events depicted in the smash hit Game of Thrones series, which concluded in 2019.
Game of Thrones has consistently been a significant catalyst for screen tourism, and Visit Wales is undoubtedly anticipating the third season of House of Dragons, will continue to attract fans to the enchanting filming locations.
The well-liked Netflix Witcher series has also utilised numerous Welsh locations for filming, chiefly in Eryri National Park and along the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.
Specific sites include Llyn Padarn, Zip World, Dolbadarn Castle, and the National Slate Museum in Snowdonia, as well as Nash Point and Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula.
In September 2024, film crews descended upon the village of Llanberis at the base of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) for the third series of The Witcher.
The village underwent a transformation, with artificial boulders and a "fake" forest assembled in the Gwynedd village and black screens erected at Y Glyn, a popular beauty spot more commonly known as The Lagoons.
Wales has also benefitted massively as a whole. A recent study shows that Netflix has poured over £200 million into the UK's economy since 2020, through its focus on Welsh film and TV projects. The streaming powerhouse has produced hit series like Sex Education, The Crown, and The Witcher in Wales, branding it a prime filming location.
Anna Mallet, Netflix's VP of Production for the UK, commented: "Blessed with incredible creative talent and beautiful natural landscapes, Wales is an amazing place to make entertainment, so Netflix is delighted that our Welsh productions can continue to create such enduring cultural and economic opportunities."
Netflix is set to enhance its presence with their latest project, the biggest feature film ever entirely shot in Wales.
The new Tom Hardy flick, Havoc, portrays a botched transaction and the subsequent rescue mission from a dark criminal network to save a politician's alienated offspring. While the critics have branded the film as "insanely violent" and "relentlessly brutal," commendations were high for its action-packed sequences filmed across Welsh locales, reports Wales Online.
In recent years, screen tourism, or 'set-jetting', has become one of the most dynamic sectors within the travel industry, with Wales well-placed to benefit from this burgeoning demand.
Seren Welch, a Screen Tourism Specialist, commented on the trend's impact: "This is an area of tourism that's seen exponential growth in the last ten years."
Supporting evidence comes from Expedia's 2023 trends research, which revealed that 40% of trips booked through their platform were influenced by film or television content.
Streaming giants like Netflix have played a pivotal role in driving this trend. Their worldwide audience has been introduced to stunning landscapes and historical sites, fuelling curiosity and prompting visits to these filming locations.
Welch pointed out Netflix's 2022 findings: "Their subscribers were 2.4 times more likely to put a destination at the top of their travel list after seeing it in a show... something a tourist board can only dream of."
She further noted, "Platforms can even track destination search spikes exactly when a new show seen with Emily in Paris and Bridgerton."
The link between on-screen storytelling and real-world discovery underscores the allure of enchanting filming locations, many of which are found throughout Wales.
Other stories filmed in Wales include the BBC's much-loved series Gavin and Stacey, with the emotional Christmas Day finale becoming one of the most viewed scripted TV programmes of the century, attracting over 19 million viewers. Barry Island was one of the show's primary locations, and it's difficult to find a scene without it!
Since 2004, the producers of the popular science-fiction drama Doctor Who have made Wales the show's home. The country has hosted multiple Time Lords, Daleks, and a myriad of other monsters.
Doctor Who has become so intertwined with Wales due to its extensive filming across the country, especially in Cardiff, Newport, and other locales, that Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff acts as the show's main studio hub.
The Batman film The Dark Knight Rises also featured a breathtaking waterfall in the Brecon Beacons, for exterior shots of Batman's clandestine hideout, the Batcave.
During a BAFTA Cymru event before the show's premiere on 25 May, BBC Wales head Rhuanedd Richards expressed her joy over Death Valley being set in her native Mountain Ash.
Even though Death Valley is set in the Cynon Valley, the majority of the series was filmed in various locations across South Wales.
For over a decade, the Casualty production team has used Cardiff as the setting for countless dramatic and heart-wrenching storylines on the BBC's long-standing medical drama.
The show is primarily filmed at BBC Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff Bay, which also houses the set for the Welsh-language soap opera Pobl y Cwm.
Despite Casualty being set in the fictional Holby City Hospital, elements of Welsh culture and identity are often woven into the narrative by the writers and producers. The show has successfully showcased the diversity of Wales to a national audience.
And the Young Sherlock production team shot scenes at several locations in Monmouth, telling the origin story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective.
The town centre was transformed with extras donned in Victorian attire and temporary shopfronts to create a genuine period backdrop, complete with stacks of fruit and veg outside a greengrocer's façade.
Filming locations included the Shire Hall, the Punch House pub, and the Oxford Coffee Shop. An employee from the Punch House revealed that extras were dressed and made-up inside the pub.
