Where is Doctor Who filmed? Discover the spectacular real-life UK locations of the star-hopping Time Lord
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, we take a look at some of the most spectacular UK settings of the time-travelling series, which has been filmed all over the UK, especially in Wales.
First broadcast on 23 November, 1963, the show has continued to captivate audiences with its fantastical adventures. Over the years, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, David Tennant, Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith, Jodie Whittaker and more have played the charismatic Time Lord. This autumn, David Tennant will be returning as the Fourteenth Doctor for three special 60th-anniversary episodes.
From 1 November there will be over 800 episodes from the Doctor Who archive available on BBC iPlayer, so see if you can spot the location…
Doctor Who filming locations
Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly
Built in 1271, the impressive medieval Welsh castle and its teetering tower appears in several Doctor Who episodes, including the unnerving two-parter The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People (2011), in which the castle is reimagined as The Monastery, as well as The End of Time, The Eternity Trap, The Vampires of Venice, Lost in Time and The Power of Three.
Explore this vast fortress – the second-largest in Britain – on this walk around Caerphilly Castle. Or if you want to give yourself the creeps, check out The Rebel Flesh on iPlayer and play spot the clone…
National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire
Designed by Sir Norman Foster, the largest single-span glasshouse in the world appears in episode The Waters of Mars (2009), starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. The National Botanic Garden of Wales becomes Bowie Base One, humanity’s first colony on Mars, with the Great Glasshouse transformed into Biodome 1. Dig into the full episode of The Waters of Mars on iPlayer.
Also a big fan of glasshouses? (Who isn’t?!) Check out the best glasshouses to visit in the UK.
Rhossili Bay, Gower Peninsula
The most westerly bay on Wales’ Gower peninsula, with a beautiful long stretch of sand, Rhossili Bay is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Wales. In the episode New Earth (2006), it becomes a new planet resettled by humans. As Rose and the Doctor arrive five billion years in the future, landing on the windswept apple-grass, the distinctive shape of Worm’s Head reveals our true location.
Look out for the famous sea serpent and sandy bay at the outset of New Earth on iPlayer, and make like a Time Lord on this 7.8 mile return walk from Rhossili Bay to Paviland Cavern.
Powis Castle, Powys
Broadcast in 1981, Warrior’s Gate starred Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, and many of the scenes are set against the striking terraced gardens of the 12th-century Powis Castle.
The medieval castle is now managed by the National Trust and is open to the public, so you can do a spot of time-travelling yourself on this pretty walk around Powis Castle.
Powis Castle and Garden, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 8RF.
Southerndown Beach / Dunraven Bay, Glamorgan
You may know this spectacular South Wales beach as ‘Bad Wolf Bay’, fictionally located in Norway, in Doomsday (2006).
Dunraven Bay also makes an appearance as the surface of an alien planet in The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone (2010). That seems appropriate, given that the otherworldly landscape once lay at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea near the Equator, with blue-grey rocks formed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Dunraven Bay makes a fitting backdrop for the second farewell scene between Rose and David Tennant’s Doctor Who at Bad Wolf Bay; catch it from 50.35 in Journey’s End on iPlayer.
Tredegar House, Monmouthshire
Are there any sections of Tredegar House that Doctor Who hasn’t filmed? Set in a 90-acre park, this 17th-century restoration mansion in Newport has appeared in at least 10 Doctor Who episodes, by our count. David Tennant made his debut as the Tenth Doctor in the episode The Christmas Invasion (2005), which featured Tredegar House during a broadcast by Penelope Wilton’s Prime Minister.
The basement became a dungeon in New Earth; the house became the Torchwood Estate in Tooth and Claw and it also appeared in The Girl in the Fireplace, Army of Ghosts (all 2006), Human Nature/ Family of Blood (2007) and The Unicorn and the Wasp. David Morrissey strolled its grounds in The Next Doctor (2008), in which the stable and courtyards became a Victorian London on Christmas Eve in 1851.
Plus, it pops up in The End of Time 1 and 2 (2009-2010), The Impossible Astronaut (2011), The Woman Who Lived (2015) and Spyfall, Part 2 (2020). So if you’re any kind of serious Doctor Who fan, you should get there pronto.
Watch The Christmas Invasion on iPlayer.
Tredegar House, Pencarn Way, Newport, NP10 8YW
Dyffryn Gardens, Glamorgan
These beautiful botanical gardens, designed at the end of the 19th century and completed in 1909, grace the grounds of Dyffryn House, an ancient estate near Cardiff dating to 640AD.
David Tennant’s Doctor Who first landed here in 2006 for the episode Tooth and Claw, which featured the estate’s Castle Room and courtyard, and The Girl in the Fireplace, in which Dyffryn Gardens become the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in 18th-century France. Subsequently, it has been used for a host of Time Lord adventures, including Forest of the Dead (2008), The Wedding Song (2011), The Girl Who Waited (2011), Deep Breath (2014), Into the Dalek (2014), Kerblam! (2018) and Survivors of the Flux (2021).
Watch The Girl in the Fireplace on iPlayer
Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire
Standing guard over the River Wye, Chepstow Castle was built in 1067 following the Norman Conquest and this grand fortification hosted scenes from The Day of the Doctor (2013). Starring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, this 77-minute episode celebrated the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, and featured previous cast stars David Tennant, Billie Piper, John Hurt and Tom Baker. Quite the Whovian knees-up. Chepstow Castle also provided the location for scenes in the The Rebel Flesh (2011) and The Almost People (2011).
Watch The Day of the Doctor on iPlayer
Bodiam Castle, East Sussex
Built in 1385, spectacular Bodiam Castle starred as the prime location in the 1983 episode The Kings Demons (1983), starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. Doctor Who wanders the moated, medieval castle’s torch-lit corridors and chambers, discovering that the monarch is a robotic weapon called Kamelion. In Robot of Sherwood (2014), the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) returns to Bodiam Castle, which this time has been reinvented as the Sheriff of Nottingham’s castle in Sherwood Forest in 1190.
Watch Robot of Sherwood on iPlayer and clock the castle’s impressive grandeur at 12.39.
Tyntesfield House, Somerset
A gorgeous Gothic Revival masterpiece built on wealth derived from importing Peruvian ‘guano’ fertiliser, Tyntesfield House becomes a ‘haunted’ mansion in the Doctor Who episode Hide (2013). Set in 1974, this episode features the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, and his companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) solving a ghostly mystery.
The shots of the mansion are all of Tyntesfield but the scenes in the forest were filmed at Gethin Forest in Wales.
Watch Hide on iPlayer.
Tyntesfield House, Wraxall, Bristol, North Somerset, BS48 1PA