TV and Film Locations in Cornwall you can Actually Visit

I don’t think we quite realise how many there are in Cornwall. Up and down the county, our wild and
rugged scenery, as well as our elegant old houses and gardens, have played an important role in
entertaining us for decades. The unsung supporting cast to A-listers, costume dramas and more than a
few National Treasures.

Where to start? How about the quintessential ‘if walls could talk’ setting of Charlestown.

Charlestown
Famed for its tall ship harbour, Charlestown near St Austell has long been a favourite with both the
small and big screen. The popular series Poldark filmed many scenes here, as did the BAFTA-winning
Cornish film Bait (2019). If you cast your mind back a little further, then Doctor Who, The Three
Musketeers, Hornblower and The Eagle Has Landed have all made use of this wonderfully atmospheric
location too. It is one of those places that barely seems to need a set designer.

Bodmin Moor
Head up onto the moors and the mood turns a little darker and more mysterious. Of course, Daphne du
Maurier’s 1936 novel Jamaica Inn was inspired by that infamous pub on the edge of Bodmin Moor, and
Alfred Hitchcock adapted it for the screen in 1939, starring Charles Laughton. Poldark again borrowed
from this vivid scenery, with those dramatic galloping scenes making full use of the open heathland.
More recently, the modern fantasy film The Kid Who Would Be King (2019) used these rolling hills to add even more drama.

Tintagel
Here is a place full of myth and legend. The remains of Tintagel Castle are, of course, wrapped up in the
Arthurian tales, and the whole setting still feels made for the screen. While the 2017 Guy Ritchie film
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was not actually filmed here, Tintagel still fits that world perfectly, with its dramatic ruins, crashing sea and Merlin’s Cave below.

Long before that, the MGM epic Knights of the Round Table, made in 1953 and released in 1954, filmed some sequences near Tintagel Castle, with local people used as extras. Starring Robert Taylor as
Lancelot and Ava Gardner as Guinevere, it was one of the grand Technicolor-style Arthurian adventures
of its day, and Tintagel must have felt like the perfect place to bring Camelot a little closer to life.
The area also has a gothic side too. The exterior of Tintagel’s Camelot Castle Hotel was used as Dr
Seward’s asylum in the 1979 film Dracula, which feels entirely fitting when the mist rolls in.

Port Isaac
Sticking to the north coast, we have the tiny village of Port Isaac, which really has made it in film and
television terms. The long-running series Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes, turned these narrow
streets into Portwenn, and of course the Fisherman’s Friends films were made around here too. Those
films also made use of Polzeath and the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno.

It’s not just our scenery that gets a starring role either. Cornwall’s grand houses make an appearance as well, including one not far from us. Filming at Pencarrow House and Gardens has included The Red Dress, A Question of Honour and The Weekend, all adaptations of Rosamunde Pilcher, which have long been especially popular with German audiences.

The Lizard
The star in the Lizard’s crown has to be Kynance Cove, with its white sand, dark rocks and almost unreal blue water. It feels like somewhere a camera would naturally be drawn to, and it has featured in
productions including Sherlock Holmes.

The 2004 film Ladies in Lavender, starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, also captured a gentler side of Cornwall, with filming around Cadgwith and other beautiful coastal spots nearby.

And if you want to go right back to the very beginning, the Lizard can lay claim to one of the oldest films ever made in Cornwall. In 1899, a short black and white silent documentary called Wreck of the S.S. Paris was filmed at the Manacles after the ocean liner ran aground there.

The best of the rest
The list really does go on. A few more honourable mentions include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
(2010), which filmed at Anthony House as well as Charlestown. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) made use of beautiful St Ives, and who could forget James Bond sliding down the side of a
biome? Die Another Day was filmed at the Eden Project in 2002.

For The Secret Garden (2020), Cornwall’s starring role came from Trebah Garden near Falmouth, whose lush subtropical planting made it a perfect fit for a story built around hidden beauty and overgrown magic. It is easy to see why filmmakers would fall for it.

To make the most of your movie tour, it can help to have a guide. We love the very knowledgeable Barry, who has ferried some of these stars around while they were on location. He also runs Cornwall
Discovery Tours, offering first class private guided tours in Cornwall.

Thinking of a film-related road trip? If you love the open road and a bit of retro adventure, you could
book your own VW campervan and follow in the footsteps of The Beatles and their 1967 film Magical
Mystery Tour, which was filmed around Newquay. More recently, House of the Dragon, the Game of
Thrones prequel, also filmed at Holywell Bay. Campervan hire in Cornwall doesn’t get much better than
Pip, lovingly renovated and fully equipped, making a film-scouting adventure a lovely way to explore our Cornish coast.