Cornwall filming locations
From Blue Juice to Pirates Of The Caribbean (On Stranger Tides), Cornwall’s blue seas, unusually reliable weather and unspoilt historic villages and harbours all combine to make it one of the most photogenic locations in the UK for film makers. The fact that the county also boasts such a variety of quality accommodation for scouts, cast and crew can’t do any harm, either! Here are some of the edited highlights of Cornwall’s long career in the limelight:
Charlestown – The only physical outdoor location in Tim Burton’s 2010 film Alice in Wonderland, the Cornish harbour has also featured in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Treasure Island (1950) and The Three Musketeers (1993), as well as an episode of Doctor Who. More recently, the tiny harbour is well-known as a regular filming location for the BBC TV series, Poldark.
For cottages near Charlestown, click here.
Die Another Day – The Eden Project’s Tropical Biome makes an unlikely double agent for an Icelandic diamond mine, but Holywell Bay nails it as a perfect pseudo-Korean beach to land on after night-surfing ashore on the the famous Jaws wave (Peahi on the north shore of Maui!).
Eden Project -Matt Jessop
World War Z featured Falmouth not one iota, since the filming took place on ice-bound ships in the bay, but the cast and crew, including Mr. Pitt, were based there for the duration of filming in August 2011. I don’t suppose Falmouth feels terribly hard done by, since it’s featured regularly in movies since 1904 (Scenes in the Cornish Riviera), including in the 1935 blockbuster The Mystery of the Marie Celeste starring Bela Lugosi!
Click here for cottages near Falmouth.
Dozens of movie adaptations of Rosamunde Pilcher books have and continue to be filmed in Cornwall (the production company has permanent offices in Plymouth), and their popularisation of the area brings droves of her fans to the area. Pilcher moved to Scotland in 1946 and never returned to Cornwall, but since her first international bestseller The Shell Seekers went global in 1987, the entire back catalogue has been filming almost constantly in the county. Many of them have used the 16th century stately home Prideaux Place, near Padstow, as a location. The house, as well as being a stunning mansion, overlooks a lush deer park where you can (quietly) see the animals come out to feed at dusk a short walk from the harbour.
For cottages near Padstow, click here.
The original Poldark TV series about a 18th century Cornishman, which launched in 1975 with some of the most iconic title music the industry has ever heard, was a runaway success in part because of the Heathfield-esque windblown ruggedness of its locations – no less than 41 different ones in Cornwall! Including Charlestown, and our personal favourite, St. Enodoc Church at Daymer Bay.
For cottages near St. Enodoc, click here.