Where was Vikings filmed? Kattegat & All the Filming Locations
Posted by Ra Moon
You would expect the answer to be somewhere in Scandinavia. In fact, Vikings was filmed almost entirely in Ireland's Wicklow county, the same location where Kattegat in the Vikings Valhalla Netflix series was filmed.
It wasn't until the latest seasons, starting on the fourth, that your favorite Norsemen became experienced globetrotters.
It wasn't until the latest seasons, starting on the fourth, that your favorite Norsemen became experienced globetrotters.
Within a very short range of the studio, you can find rugged mountains, fairytale-like forests, gorgeous lakes, and the seaside.
The sound stages are less than an hour's drive from Dublin, which is where most of the many extras required for the series come from.
Ireland offers a competitive tax incentive that encourages TV series and films to film there, so the makers of Vikings preferred to stay on the island.
However, after the worldwide success of the show, the production team ended up landing in Morocco and Iceland to film parts of seasons 4 and 5, including a short excursion into Canadian lands in season 3.
The series follows the adventures of Ragnar Lodbrok and his lineage, a legendary 9th-century hero who plundered Northumbria, France, and Britain.
We updated this (almost) spoiler-free report with the new filming locations for the sixth and final season.
Where is Vikings filmed?
Most of the Vikings locations are found in Wicklow County, situated about 30 miles south of Dublin. This small region has been transformed into England, France, or Norway, as the situation required.
The countryside in the Valley of Glendalough has a magical look that many other productions have previously appreciated, like the 1981 mythical film Excalibur.
The forests in Wicklow have areas that are almost untouched and ancient trees that create a convincing sense of wilderness. The Wicklow Way runs along stunning mountains and lakes.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image by Rob Hurson - Map
Image by Rob Hurson - Map
The Kattegat Vikings set and the lake location
In the series, our Vikings come from a settlement in the sound of Kattegat (a narrow sea channel between two bodies of land), located under a fjord in southern Norway.
Image courtesy of History Channel
The Lough Tay lake is a key Vikings location. The Kattegat village set was built at the right of the picture near the shore before it was dismantled and moved to Ashford Studios in Ballyhenry.
Outdoor footage in these lands is often digitally edited to add snowy mountains and other Scandinavian elements to the scene.
Image courtesy of History Channel and Kilgarron - Map
This is the set of Vikings at Ashford Studios, as seen from satellite imagery.
We can appreciate the layout with the mini-artificial lake - Here is a link to the map location in Google Maps.
This image is from the set in Ashford during the filming of season six, which has now been recycled for the Netflix series Vikings Valhalla.
The production used River Boyne, in the area outside Drogheda, to film scenes taking place in a river.
Other lakes in the area, such as Lough Dan and Lake Blessington, were used to film scenes aboard the Viking longships.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Maps: River Boyne / Lough Dan / Blessington Lake
The nearly 400 feet high Powerscourt Waterfall has appeared in several episodes. Pictured, a screenshot from episode twelve, season five.
This is a popular tourist attraction along with the house and Italian gardens of the Powerscourt Estate.
This location has been featured in many productions, including the second season of AMC's Into the Badlands.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
In County Kerry, the beautiful Nuns Beach located along the Wild Atlantic Way doubled as a beach in Northumbria in a scene of the first season.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
In the third season, the siege of a certain important city (we said no spoilers) was produced using a lot of computer-generated imagery.
For practical purposes, all of the scenic locations used for this storyline were filmed on the grounds of Ashford Studios, where Vikings has its filming headquarters.
Also, a few scenes from the fourth season were filmed in Canada, in a forest in Northeastern Ontario (not far from Sault Ste. Marie Airport).
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map in Canada
Vikings also filmed on location in Morocco for the fifth season. The Sahara desert near Erfoud and Errachidia represents the Mediterranean and North African territories.
The fortress of the Byzantine commander in Sicily (pictured) was recycled from the Kingdom of Heaven 2005 movie setpiece in Atlas Studios (Ouarzazate).
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
Season 5 Locations in Iceland
The Land of the Gods that Flóki discovers during season 5 was filmed on the black sand beaches near VÃk in gorgeous Iceland.
The exact location of the beach is to the right of the Dyrhólaey cape, where there is situated the arch with a hole and some sea stacks in the background.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
Skógafoss (pictured) is one of the most popular waterfalls on Iceland's Ring Road southwest itinerary.
Some elements of the small Viking settlement (the one with a blue pool), like the geyser, were added to the landscape using CGI.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
In the third episode of season five, "Homeland", Flóki hikes to Kvernufoss Waterfall.
Also, there is a scene filmed at the KrýsuvÃk geothermal area near Reykjavik.
In episode six, "The Message", there is a view of Dettifoss waterfall, a famous landmark located on the Diamond Circle circuit in the north of the country.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Maps: Kvernufoss / KrýsuvÃk / Dettifoss
Vikings Season 6 Filming Locations
In season six, Ivar is a kind of 10th-century backpacker, Couchsurfing, getting drunk, and doing extreme sports with his new friend, the Varangian Prince Oleg (played by Danila Kozlovsky).
The Kyiv set of the Kievan Rus kingdom was built in the studios. The palace is inspired by the 22-dome Transfiguration Church on Kizhi island, located on Lake Onega, Russia.
The building on the set was constructed only up to the balcony, while the domes were added using digital effects.
In addition, the twin towers of the entrance were designed according to the church bell tower, which you can see in the middle of the lower picture.
These churches and the other buildings located in the park were dismantled and moved from various parts of Karelia by Soviet authorities in 1960. Here they created here a museum of Russian wooden architecture in order to better preserve them.
Image courtesy of History Channel and Atlas of Wonders - Kizhi Pogost Map
The opening of the season begins with Ivar traveling on the Silk Road in Asia. There are a couple of images from the rainbow mountains of China, Zhangye Danxia.
You can check out more pictures of this amazing place in our dedicated report via the last link.
Image courtesy of History Channel - Map
The Part 2 scenes from Ubbe's expedition in Newfoundland show some establishing shots of the coast and forests in North America, but they were also filmed in Ireland.
The scene on the beach, pictured, looks like it was filmed in one of the caves in Silverstrand beach in the south of Wicklow.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of Vikings series? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
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Ra Moon
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I would say that mentioning the siege of Paris was quite a bit of a spoiler :)
ReplyDeleteIt annoys me how people go on about spoilers, as then you can't find anything about what will happen when you want to know. If people are that sensitive about it, why are they reading articles about it online?
DeleteExcellent reply, if you don't want to know then don't look, I love to know it makes my movie understanding better.
DeleteThe siege was in the previous season but you are right, I changed it. Now fingers cross: I hope that those who haven't watched it yet are not reading your comment :]
ReplyDeleteThe cation under first photo makes no sense "..all the locations for the Vikings are found in the Wicklow county, in the south of Dublin"
ReplyDeleteWicklow is in south of Ireland maybe. .
Wicklow is about 25 km South of Dublin. Beautiful county and city . Worth a visit - especially if you love walking.
DeleteOh hell why do some people have to be so anal retentive it is one of the greatest t.v shows to have ever aired on television. The locations the cast the story line I could go on and on. Hats of to everyone who had a hand in making it happen oh and Travis Fimmel could not have been better he made Ragnar the great just that GREAT!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's good, but it's really no where near being one of the greatest series to have ever aired on television. The casting and acting is generally believable, the scripting is occasionally a little ropey, and the editing and use of slow-mo is also a little contrived/ distracting at times. However the soundtrack, title music and general feel of the show via locations, cinematography, colour grading and CGI is all pretty much top notch. It is gritty realism, but blended with the mystical belief system of the Norsemen in such a way that it probably owes more to Robin of Sherwood than it does any other series, with perhaps the exception of Game of Thrones (sex, gore, more sex...).
DeleteMentioning the 845 Siege of Paris in regards to a series that chronicles the life of Ragnar Lodbrok (albeit in a pick and choose fashion) is in no way a spoiler. That is akin to stating that telling people 'the ship sinks' is a spoiler for Titanic.
The acting (at least the very main characters... Ragnar, Floki,now Ivar, etc.. is freaking amazing. The crazy intricate mannerisms and quirky inflections are mind blowing. ESPECIALLY new and improved Ivar. The inherent "focused rage" is exquisite. You're just being a hater. There's a couple "ropey" plot lines (the Emperor of China's daughter story line) but most is great. For being loosely based on history, and "real" mythology, and without throwing in ridiculous dragons and sh!t, the show is absolutely stunning. I personally agree with Tony. It's probably my favorite show of all time. Staples like The Sopranos, or Breaking Bad, are "better shows", but this one always has me more exited week to week to see what happens that any of the others. That means something. Plus instead of going backwards and shortening the amount of episodes every season, they doubled down and started doing twenty. They don't skip a month for Christmas. They just rock.
DeleteWhy bring so technical about production, using the cinema jargon. Simply a show off. Yet the soundtrack is more intriguing than the actual production. That is an ignorancexcellent in its entirety. We love this film because of acting and scenery and bold impressions of historical capturing, not the soundtracks....What is really fascinating about the plot is how much courage, hostility, love and lion-heart behavior are exhibited by main characters. Freedom, adventure, kinship, loyalty, philosophy, spirituality, those are just a few that makes this film on of the best ever...
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking us through! I appreciate it 😊. I still don’t get why they are using the name of the danish sea - “Kattegat” for the Viking village. According to the history and old sagas , they were from Denmark and probably “Lejre” or “ Fyrkat”. However there no mountains or waterfalls so it’s not that good tele.
ReplyDeleteWe love vikings and glad the nudity and sex is not the same as thrones, we can watch it as a whole family with neighbours and not worry about anyone feeling too uneasy etc.. the girls even watch it without saying they are being sexualized too much etc.. awesome show!
ReplyDeleteI love the show, it's the best but what cracks me up is the designer Viking clothes like the little metal holes that the leather strips go there I'm pretty sure they weren't around then,I could be wrong, also you can see the sewing machine work, you think they would have picked up on that, I love the flag symbol Ivar uses when he thinks he's a god at kattegut, it couldn't get any closer to the Nazi flag of WW2, it's just got a little dab of yellow in the middle, hahahahaha, great show, beautiful scenery , I'm spewing it finishes ,it could go on a bit more.
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