House of the Dragon Filming Locations: From Cornwall to Monsanto
House of the Dragon filmed in Cornwall, Wales, Spain and Portugal, with interiors near London. Here's what each place plays in Westeros and where you can visit.
Table of contents
House of the Dragon, HBO's Game of Thrones prequel, filmed most of its outdoor scenes in the United Kingdom — the Cornwall coast, North Wales, Surrey and the Peak District — while its castle interiors were built at the show's production base, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden near London. Season one also travelled to Spain and Portugal for a handful of exterior shots. As of July 2026, most of the real landscapes are open to visitors through bodies like the National Trust and Visit Wales, while the studio sets are closed working spaces.
This guide is for travelers who want to stand where the show was shot, not a scene-by-scene plot breakdown. It sticks to confirmed real places and how to reach them. It does not quote ticket prices, which change often, so check each site's official page before you plan a trip.
Where House of the Dragon was filmed, at a glance
The production ran on two tracks. A UK home unit handled the bulk of filming across England and Wales, and a travelling unit shot the sun-baked scenes in Spain and Portugal. The indoor sets — the Red Keep, the throne room — were built and filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, roughly 34 kilometres northwest of London. Each outdoor location below stands in for a named place in Westeros.
| Location | Plays in the show | Where it is | Can you visit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Michael's Mount | Driftmark (High Tide) | Cornwall, England | Yes — National Trust site |
| Holywell Bay | Season 1 beach scenes | Cornwall, England | Yes — open beach |
| Monsanto | Dragonstone (season 1) | Portugal | Yes — hilltop village |
| Dinorwig Quarry | Harrenhal | North Wales | Yes — in a country park |
| Llanddwyn Beach | Westeros shoreline | Anglesey, Wales | Yes — open beach |
| Cáceres and Trujillo | King's Landing area | Spain | Yes — historic towns |
| WB Studios Leavesden | Interiors (throne room) | Watford, England | No — working studio |
Where was Dragonstone filmed?
Dragonstone, the Targaryen island fortress, was filmed in two very different places over the show's run. For season one, the exterior came from Monsanto, a hilltop village in eastern Portugal where the houses sit among and beneath giant granite boulders. Co-creator Ryan Condal has said that when the team saw Monsanto on its mountain, they knew they had found Dragonstone. Later filming moved the fortress home: Trefor Quarry in Gwynedd, North Wales, supplied Dragonstone's cliffs and coast.
Both are real places you can walk. Monsanto is a lived-in village with narrow lanes, and Trefor sits on the Llŷn Peninsula within reach of the North Wales coast.
Cornwall: Driftmark and the Stepstones
Cornwall, on England's southwest tip, carried some of season one's most recognisable coastal scenes. The island castle of St Michael's Mount played High Tide, the seat of House Velaryon on Driftmark. It is a National Trust site reached on foot across a tidal causeway at low water, or by a short boat trip when the tide is in, so your visit is tied to the tide table.
Two nearby beaches handled the sand-and-surf scenes. VisitBritain lists Holywell Bay as the show's Stepstones, and Kynance Cove on the Lizard peninsula was also used for season one filming. Both are National Trust beaches that cost nothing to walk, though car parks and cafés keep shorter hours outside summer.
Wales: Harrenhal, Anglesey and the Snowdonia quarries
Season two leaned heavily on North Wales, in and around Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park. Dinorwig Quarry, a huge disused slate quarry near Llanberis, became the ruined castle of Harrenhal; it lies inside Padarn Country Park, which is open to walkers. On the Isle of Anglesey, Llanddwyn Beach and Penmon Point stood in for Westeros shorelines. The Welsh Government said the season filmed across the counties of Gwynedd and Anglesey.
These are outdoor sites with real terrain. Old slate quarries have loose ground and steep drops, so stick to marked paths and take the same care you would on any mountain walk.
Spain and Portugal: Westeros in the sun
Before it settled into Wales, the show sent a unit south. In Spain, the medieval towns of Cáceres and Trujillo — both used earlier in Game of Thrones — dressed the exteriors around King's Landing, the capital of Westeros. In Portugal, Monsanto gave season one its Dragonstone. None of these are closed sets: they are living towns where you can walk the same squares and stone streets any time of year, which makes them the easiest locations to fit into an ordinary holiday.
Can you actually visit the locations?
Mostly yes, with one clear exception. The landscapes are genuine public places: the National Trust beaches in Cornwall, the country parks and coast paths in Wales, and the old towns of Spain and Portugal are all open to ordinary visitors. What you cannot tour is the studio. Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is a working production site, not a visitor attraction, and the public Studio Tour on that same estate is the Harry Potter one, not House of the Dragon.
Getting there takes a little planning. Cornwall and North Wales are both reachable by train from London, though you will usually finish the last stretch by bus or car. If European rail is new to you, our rundown of passes, tickets and seat reservations covers the basics. And if you like building trips around what you watch, the same set-jetting habit drives our guide to the real Korean places behind KPop Demon Hunters.
Before you set out, confirm opening times and any tickets on each place's own channel — the National Trust for St Michael's Mount and the Cornish beaches, and Visit Wales for the Snowdonia and Anglesey spots. Access to quarries and coastal paths can shift with weather and safety work, so as of July 2026 it is worth a quick check of the official page the week you plan to go.