The Cairnholm Filming Location: Where was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children filmed?

Posted by Ra Moon

Based on a children’s book by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was 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.

Miss Peregrine movie house

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.

Miss Peregrine cast actors

The cast features famous actors such as Samuel L Jackson, Eva Green, Judi Dench, and Chris O’Dowd.

Congratulations. You’ve made it to the world’s greatest guide to Miss Peregrine's filming locations. Now let’s get started:

The Real Miss Peregrine's House

Peculiar Children playing football in the yard of the manor
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


Inspiring mansion for the movie's household
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


Old Torenhof Castle postcard 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 right: 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.


Miss Peregrine house
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. You can read the full story and much more in the book The Art of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
Image courtesy of Pradi


The Filming Location of Cairnholm, Wales

Cairnholm town
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.

The Castle of Camelot featured in Cursed (the 2020 Netflix series) was added via CGI to a cliff located near the village.
Image by Philip Halling and 20th Century Fox


Portholland town Cornwall shooting set
The town had the character and the right coastline, but it lacked the pub and the shops (there are only about 15 houses).

As you can see in the picture on the left, there is a big car park in the middle of the village, so the team decided to add a few buildings and a graveyard (the image at the right was taken during the shooting).


Ransom Riggs in the Miss Peregrine movie set
American writer Ransom Riggs on set with the Priest Hole in the background. This pub was also built as an interior for filming.


Fake stores in Cairnholm
Two of the three Cairnholm shops for the set built by the production team (only the exterior).

The Edward Scissorhands director likes to have in-camera effects as often as he can, trying not to use too many green-screen based visual effects.
Image by Tim Rowe


Portholland view beach landscape
A view of Portholland and the beach that was used as the cliffs where Oggie falls. The shoot for Miss Peregrine in Cornwall also took place in a town located nearby called Minions (!!!), in the area of Bodmin Moor.
Image by Nilfanion


Blackpool Tower and pier with CGI effects
The Blackpool that we see in the film is a collage, a nicer vintage version of this coastal city in North West England.

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, where the scene was filmed. 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


Ella Purnell Flying sequence in Blackpool
In the scene pictured when Emma is levitating near the iconic Blackpool Tower. Completed in 1894, the design of the iron and steel structure is inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.


Miss Peregrine in Blackpool
In this screenshot, we can also appreciate the changes to Blackpool's coastline in the film.

Also, a few minor filming locations for the movie were set in Sun City Center, Florida (USA), doubling as Abe's neighborhood.
Image by 20th Century Fox and Ignacio Palomo Duarte

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!

NOTICE: If you’re using this information on your website, please credit and link to this page as a source.
*****


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!


 

0 comments

All comments are reviewed prior to publication