Where was Christmas at Castle Hart filmed? Guide to ALL the Locations

Posted by

Hallmark's festive romantic comedy Christmas at Castle Hart was filmed entirely on location in Ireland. The Emerald Isle is the perfect setting for the network’s Countdown to Christmas programming event.

The story follows two sisters from New York, Brooke and Margot, who decide to travel to Ireland to search for their Irish roots after Brooke was fired from a waitressing job.

Christmas at Castle Hart location

Brooke's life takes an unexpected turn when the girls meet the charming Earl of Glaslough, who, mistaking them for high-profile event planners, hires the siblings to host a prestigious Christmas Ball at his castle.

As Brooke gets to know Aiden more closely, she begins to fall for him, but what will happen when Aiden learns the truth?

Congratulations. You’ve made it to the ultimate guide to the filming locations of Christmas at Castle Hart. We have everything right here:

Christmas at Castle Hart Glaslough town
The establishing shots of the lovely village in Ireland, where the Bennett sisters planned to spend Christmas, were filmed in Kinvara in Galway Bay.

The bed and breakfast exterior is the Connollys Pub.

The formidable Dunguaire Castle, considered one of the most visited and photographed medieval strongholds in the West of Ireland, is located in this town.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Hallmark Channel - Map


Doonagore castle
Also, the scenic round tower of the 16th-century Doonagore castle appears briefly at the beginning of the movie, standing above the village of Doolin and the Galway Bay.
Image courtesy of Tim O'Brien - Map


Welcome to Castle Hart, Glaslough

Castle Hart
Castle Hart was filmed at Dromoland Castle, the ancestral home of the descendants of Brian Boru, whose famous O’Brien clan lineage dates back 1,000 years to one of the last High Kings of Ireland.

Located on the outskirts of Ennis, this splendid 5-star luxury hotel stands today as it has been there since the early 19th-century. The medieval origins of the fortress can be traced back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

In real life, you can stay in a double room at this 450-acre estate for about US$439 per night.
Image courtesy of Grendel Khan - Map


Dromoland Castle
The interior rooms, including the main hall, were also filmed at Dromoland Castle. The stunning Gothic Revival-style house was erected on the site of the ancient mansion.

After Donough O'Brien sold the property to an American businessman in 1962, the private residence was converted into this luxurious boutique hotel.


Lanighan's of Glaslough Pub
The Lanighan's of Glaslough pub exterior is actually the Knox's Pub in Ennis in County Clare.

This small city, inhabited by little more than 25,000 friendly souls, is proud of its vibrant culture.

The human scale of its narrow, picturesque streets and the proximity to the wondrous landscapes such as the Burren or the Cliffs of Moher makes Ennis the ideal location to set the movie.
Image courtesy of Hallmark Channel - Map


Earl of Glaslough
The interior of Clara's pub, where the girls meet Aiden Hart, the Earl of Glaslough, is the Poet's Corner Bar at 58-60 O'Connell Street, also in Ennis.

Located at the Old Ground Hotel, this cozy and popular meeting place is an Ennis institution where you can listen to traditional music while enjoying a pint or a hot Irish whiskey.
Image courtesy of Hallmark - Map


Bunratty Folk Park
The scenes at the Christmas market were filmed at Bunratty Folk Park.

The village features over 30 buildings recreating brightly colored shops and rural farmhouses as they would have been in the 19th-century.
Image courtesy of Hallmark - Map


Castle Hart interior room
According to the local press, the movie also filmed scenes at Lough Cutra Castle, set in a dramatic location overlooking its own lake in Galway.

In the film, this location plays three different roles. At first, it appears as the suite room where the girls are staying at Castle Hart.
Image courtesy of Hallmark Channel - Map


Lough Cutra Castle
Also, Lough Cutra Castle is the residence of the Duchess and later on, this Gothic revival manor appears as the household of Baron Kilcullen, who offers himself to play the piano at the gala.

Built in the late 18th-century, the castle can be rented out for private events such as weddings, corporate parties, and gala dinners.
Image courtesy of Google Maps


Christmas at Castle Hart house
The craftsman's thatched roof cottage is the Shannon Farmhouse also at Bunratty Folk Park, which originally stood on the site of the main runway of the Shannon Airport.
Image courtesy of Bill Barber


Castle Hart church
The chapel that Aiden is trying to restore is the Ardcroney Church.

Originally erected in Ardcroney, County Tipperary, the temple was moved stone by stone from there to Bunratty.
Image courtesy of John Menard - Map


P MacNamara and Son
The annual tree lighting event takes place outside the P. MacNamara and Son, a restaurant also located in the picturesque Bunratty village.

The Clare Champion newspaper reported that 12 children from the Clare-based Dance Attack Stage Academy performed in several scenes of the movie, along with some local extras.
Image courtesy of Hallmark - Map


Countdown to Christmas Hallmark
The dramatic scenery of the horseback riding sequence was filmed at the magnificent Cliffs of Moher, one of the island's most famous landmarks.

The cliffs form a colossal 509 feet (155 meters) wall for about nine miles (14 kilometers) on the west coast of the country.

Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher were also the perfect backdrops for Hallmark's 2021 Spring Fling As Luck Would Have It, set in the fictional town of Kilabbey.
Image courtesy of Hallmark Channel - Map


Bunratty Castle
Brooke and Aiden also visit the iconic Bunratty Castle, a large 15th-century tower house located between Limerick and Ennis.
Image courtesy of Hallmark - Map


The Shelbourne Dublin
The exterior of the restaurant where the Duchess invites Margot for lunch and she is introduced to the Marquess of Castlevania Castleblayney is the 5-star hotel The Shelbourne in Dublin.
Image courtesy of Hallmark - Map

Meet the Christmas at Castle Hart Cast

Lacey Chabert and Ali Hardiman
The starring duo is Lacey Chabert as Brooke Bennett and Stuart Townsend as the Earl of Glaslough.

Chabert has appeared in about 27 Hallmark Channel movies! Apart from it, she's best known for her role as Claudia Salinger on FOX television series Party of Five.

Also, she has starred in many films and TV series including Lost in Space (1998), Mean Girls (2004), and Black Christmas (2006), just to name a few.

Her sister, Margot, is played by Ali Hardiman, from the Blasts from the Past TV show.


Christmas at Castle Hart cast
Irish actor and director Stuart Townsend portrayed Lestat de Lioncourt in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned (2002), and Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).

Completing the main cast are Aoife Spratt as Aiden's sister, Siobhan, Kate O’Toole as the Duchess, Ali White as Clara, Natalie Radmall-Quirke as Fiona, Mark Lambert as Baron Kilcullen, and Gary Murphy as Mayor Odhran.

Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of Christmas at Castle Hart? 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.
*****

10 comments:

1- Indiana - Nov 28, 2021, 1:51 PM
Really enjoyed watching this movie... Merry Christmas to all from Indiana.

2- Anonymous - Nov 28, 2021, 6:28 PM
I too enjoyed watching this movie... makes me want to travel to Ireland. Heureux temps des fêtes à tous et à toutes de Québec.

3- Wunderbar - Nov 29, 2021, 8:29 AM
Loved the movie, I will be traveling to Ireland and Scotland in June of 2022 if everything goes well. Hope to see some of the sites mentioned in this article. Merry Christmas from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada.

4- Anonymous - Dec 1, 2021, 5:56 PM
I have been to Ireland twice, and each time it is more memorable. My husband and I did a castle tour on the first visit and had the pleasure of staying in many of the castles in the movie. Ireland is so beautiful, and the people are very friendly. Anyone visiting will have memories that will last a lifetime!

5- Anonymous - Dec 29, 2021, 7:29 PM
My son and I stayed at Dromoland Castle in 1983. We also attended the Banquet at Bunratty Castle and visited the folk park. We spent our last three days in Ennis where we enjoyed a pub evening. We were in Ireland doing B&B's for over two weeks. It was wonderful!

6- Vicki - Jan 2, 2022, 4:57 PM
Beautiful Article!

7- Anonymous - Nov 6, 2022, 8:27 AM
Just watching this film and I am from nearby, great memories of the Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, and surrounding areas as a child. The scenery is out of this world!

8- Teresa - Australia - Nov 10, 2022, 1:14 PM
I loved reading the article and will continue reading. I would love to visit one day - I hear the countryside is also outstanding... planing to add to my memories too one day!

9- Anonymous - Nov 27, 2023, 1:08 PM
Watching Christmas at Castle Hart, I kept saying: "that looks like Dromoland Castle!"

10- Anonymous - Dec 20, 2023, 12:57 PM
I really enjoyed this Christmas film. We had a great time staying in Dromoland Castle years ago when the children were small. They did terrific off-season specials around 1990 (pre-Celtic tiger, when hardly anyone in Ireland had any money!), probably to keep the staff on during the low season or maybe to get them in training before the high season began. I remember the children being introduced to a 'knight in shining armour' in the entrance hall when we arrived, they even had a name for him! Happy memories.


0 comments

All comments are reviewed prior to publication