Cairnholm: Where was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children filmed? Filming Location Guide
Posted by Ra Moon
Based on a children’s book by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was primarily filmed in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Florida.
The 2016 Tim Burton fantastic movie traveled to a mixture of locations and had a real house to picture the wondrous foundling home and the Welsh island of Cairnholm.
The 2016 Tim Burton fantastic movie traveled to a mixture of locations and had a real house to picture the wondrous foundling home and the Welsh island of Cairnholm.
The story follows the adventures of a young boy arriving on a mysterious island that houses the ruins of an abandoned orphanage.
Here he will meet a troupe of creepy kids endowed with superhuman abilities. But unlike the X-Men or the Marvel superheroes, the bizarre inhabitants of this place are not trying to save the world, but hiding from it instead.
Congratulations. You’ve made it to the world’s greatest guide to Miss Peregrine's filming locations, sorted into chronological order. Now let’s get started:
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Locations
The story begins in Florida, where Abe Portman works at the Smart Aid store.
The facade of the Center for Health Equity in St. Petersburg has changed quite a bit since the movie was filmed in 2015.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Google Maps
The Waves neighborhood where Jake's grandfather, Abe Portman (played by Terence Stamp) lives is located in Sun City Center.
According to Reelstreets, the house is located at 1007 Hacienda Drive.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
Jake's family home is located at 101 Poinciana Lane in Largo in the Tampa Bay area.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
Welcome to Cairnholm, Wales
Portholland in Cornwall is a tiny hamlet inhabited by only 40 souls.
It doubles for the movie as Cairnholm, the fictional town on an island located close to Wales.
Image by 20th Century Fox and Philip Halling - Map
The town had the character and the right coastline, but it lacked the pub and the shops.
There are only about 15 houses and a large parking lot in the middle of the village, so the producers decided to add a few buildings and a graveyard.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Keith Murray
The Priest Hole pub was built entirely on location, both exterior and interior, for the shoot.
The exterior facades of the shop and post office were also added to the Cairnholm set.
Portholland and the beach on the right, which may be the location used for the scene where the villagers find Oggie, the blind old man, under the cliff.
Some more filming took place on the grounds of Caerhays Castle and at Porthluney Cove, which are next to Portholland.
Image by Nilfanion
The rocky area that connects the present day to the loop was filmed at the Gold Diggings Quarry on Bodmin Moor, near a town called Minions.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The Real Miss Peregrine's House
After a lot of research, the film crew settled on Torenhof Castle in Brasschaat, north of Antwerp (Belgium).
Burton wanted a place that looked like a house, not a huge stately home or an institute. As they couldn't find anything in the UK, they expanded the search abroad.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
The filmmakers found this Gothic manor following a clue from the book’s author, who described the orphanage inspired by the abandoned château Nottebohm in Brecht (pictured), near Brasschaat.
However, it was too dilapidated to film Miss Peregrine's house safely there.
Image courtesy of Kiek Mal
Image of Torenhof Castle in the late 19th-century. One of the people in charge of finding the suitable location said that “You could sense something a bit weird about that place.It’s close to the city but it seems like it’s hidden in the woods far, far away from everything.
The architecture was perfect: the pond around it, the garden - everything.” At the time they found the property, no one was living there and it was up for auction.
The studio was thinking of buying the house just for the film, but many locals were interested in the villa.
After the auction, agents from the production approached the new owner, who at first was not interested.
Luckily, later on the family found out who was the film’s director, and the movie was allowed to be shot here.
Image courtesy of Pradi
However, the interior and exterior sections of the house were built at the studios.
You can read the full story and much more in the book The Art of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
The beach where Emma (played by Ella Purnell) takes Jake to explore the sunken ship, the RMS Augusta, is Kiberick Cove, located about four miles southwest of Portholland.
Image courtesy of - Map
The spot where the Ymbryne, Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine (Eva Green), kills a Hollowgast moster is the meadow located just above Kiberick Cove.
The Blackpool that we see in the film is a collage, a version of this coastal city in North West England.
The 40's Blackpool pier where the kids land is the North Pier without the last wider tip.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The upper picture on the left is a screenshot from the film, with the pier placed across the street from the tower by the CGI team.
In the real Blackpool, this pier is located more than a thousand feet away from the tower, going down the coast.
The lower image is the real North Pier. As you can see on the right, the real Blackpool Tower doesn't have a pier.
Image by 20th Century Fox, Parrot of Doom, and Jeremy
The modern pier with the Ferris wheel was filmed at the Central Pier, which is a little further south of the tower.
This second pier was edited and cut using digital effects.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Google Maps
The interior scene where Emma is levitating is the Blackpool Tower Circus.
Completed in 1894, the design of the iron and steel structure is inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
In one of the final scenes, the Circle K gas station in Yucca Valley, California is shown.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
Can you help to improve this article about the shooting locations of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children? 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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NOTICE: If you’re using this information on your website, please credit and link to this page as a source.
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3 comments:
1- Anonymous - July 24, 2018 at 10:08 AM
Brilliant film! My children love it... and as we live in Blackpool, they were quite ecstatic when they saw the tower, etc.
2- Anonymous - April 17, 2019 at 7:59 AM
This is a good book!
3- Anonymous - June 23, 2021 at 11:41 PM
Very epic!
1- Anonymous - July 24, 2018 at 10:08 AM
Brilliant film! My children love it... and as we live in Blackpool, they were quite ecstatic when they saw the tower, etc.
2- Anonymous - April 17, 2019 at 7:59 AM
This is a good book!
3- Anonymous - June 23, 2021 at 11:41 PM
Very epic!
Ra Moon
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