The drama series takes place in a fictional village, created using two real Scottish locations.
Netflix has once again brought a drama from the archives of terrestrial television back to the forefront of the public’s imagination, with Channel 4’s Deadwater Fell being the latest show to enjoy such a boost.
The suspenseful drama starring David Tennant (Good Omens) and Cush Jumbo (Criminal Record) premiered back in January 2020, an era that feels so distant now it may as well be the stone age.
Perhaps that’s why such a large audience is flocking to the show on Netflix, as even those who did tune in the first time around may have forgotten the exact details of its twisty plot.
Indeed, Deadwater Fell will keep you guessing as it examines who is responsible for a terrible tragedy that leaves the residents of a small Scottish village utterly devastated.
If you’re wondering where Deadwater Fell was filmed, we have all the information on that below, with Scotland’s own Tennant giving his thoughts on the locations used.
Where was Deadwater Fell’s village of Kirkdarroch filmed?
The dark story of Deadwater Fell unfolds in a fictional village called Kirkdarroch, which is an amalgamation of two real locations in Scotland: Dunlop and Kilbarchan.
Both villages are less than a half-hour drive from the major city of Glasgow, but due to their location in the sprawling Scottish countryside they appear quite remote in the series.
In terms of population size, Kilbarchan is the larger village of the two with 3,622 residents according to the 2011 census, while Dunlop had only 1,127 in total.
Several of the locals actually appeared on the show as supporting artists, including at the party scene in the first episode which features a local Ceilidh band.
Kilbarchan is known for its Lilias Day celebration every summer, which sees thousands of visitors flock to the small village for festivities and celebration of Habbie Simpson, the town piper who lived from 1550 to 1620.
People from Kilbarchan are sometimes referred to as Habbies for this reason.
Records of Dunlop date all the way back to the 13th century. In recent history, Dunlop Hill was used by the military after World War I in order to track enemy aircraft approaching Glasgow.
The proximity to one of Scotland’s biggest cities was useful to the crew of Deadwater Fell too, as executive producer and star David Tennant explains.
“Just in practical terms, you can be in the centre of a big city and then ten minutes later you can be in the middle of nowhere around Glasgow. From a filming point of view, that’s quite useful to have all those little villages in between them,” he said.
Tennant added: “It’s not anything like where I grew up, but it feels like a very recognisable place. I don’t know if that’s specifically Scottish but it’s the kind of community you could imagine being anywhere or in many places throughout Scotland.”
Which Scottish beach is featured in Deadwater Fell?
A pivotal scene in the first episode of Deadwater Fell takes place on a beach, as a family day out becomes increasingly frustrated.
This filming took place on Culzean Beach, located within Culzean Country Park in Ayrshire, a little over an hour away from the villages of Kilbarchan and Dunlop.
The beach is also home to Culzean Castle which was constructed in the late 1700s and appears in the classic 1973 horror film The Wicker Man.
Deadwater Fell is available to stream on Channel 4 and Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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