The scene required six weeks to shoot, with nine cameras and 2000 extras. In 2004, the sets for Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur, with Clive Owen, were built on the same spot.Ĭurragh Plain, a 5000 acre tract of land between Newbridge and Kildare, Co Kildare, scoured flat during the Ice Age and now well known as a horse breeding area, was used for the ‘Battle of Stirling Bridge’ which – as the name suggests – was famously fought on a bridge. Not far from Blessington Lakes, the ‘Battle of Falkirk’ was staged in fields outside the town of Ballymore Eustace. If you're visiting, the lakes also offer opportunities for fishing, sailing, windsurfing and canoeing. Covering 5,000 acres, the lakes were formed in the 1940s by the building of the Poulaphouca Dam to provide electricity and water for the Dublin region.

Wallace’s escape on horseback from Mornay’s castle, after bloodily crushing his skull, filmed at Blessington Lakes, where a 45-foot tower was specially constructed for the leap into the water (and, don’t worry, that’s a mechanical horse). The ‘English’ stockade was constructed around an old hunting lodge on the Coronation Plantation (named to celebrate the coronation of King William IV in 1831), in Wicklow Mountains National Park, in the Sally Gap, which stretches along the Liffey Valley, near Kippure Mountain, County Wicklow. The town of Trim is about 26 miles northwest of Dublin on the River Boyne, Co Meath. ( Trim Castle can also be seen in Sam Fuller’s 1980 war movie, The Big Red One, with Lee Marvin). The ‘London square’ was also created at Trim, on the other side of the castle wall. The fortified English town of ‘York’ is Trim Castle, a massive ruin brought to life with extensive wooden buttresses and a gate that alone weighed seven tons. Production Designer Tom Sanders does a terrific job of dressing up time-worn Irish castles to provide authentically solid backdrops.īraveheart location: the English town of ‘York’: Trim Castle, Co Meath, Ireland | Photograph: iStockphoto © Brian Tansey The rest of the film was shot in Ireland, within a 30 mile radius of the city of Dublin, where most of the interiors were filmed at the famous Ardmore Studios. The interior of Mornay’s castle is another Scots location, filmed in Edinburgh Council Chamber, High Street, Edinburgh. Access to the ridges is gained either from the south at Kinlochleven, or from the north in Glen Nevis. If you fancy yourself as a fit hillwalker, you should be able to walk the ten peaks in a day.

The design of the village houses was based on those of St Kilda, a tiny island off the Scottish coast, inhabited until the late 18th century, but now a tourist attraction.Īs Wallace’s legend grows after the killing of Mornay ( Alun Armstrong), his trek along the spectacular mountain path filmed on the Mamores, a group of ten mountains linked by a narrow ridge, stretching between Loch Leven itself and Glen Nevis.

The filming site is up the glen, past the car park, and below the road’s highest point. Although the set was dismantled after filming and the area returned to its former state, the Braveheart Car Park, constructed to service the location, has been retained. The village of ‘Lanark’, where the young William Wallace grows up, and falls in love with Murron ( Catherine McCormack), was constructed in the Glen Nevis Valley at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain peak in Britain. The sweeping, mountainous landscapes couldn't be faked and really are the wild, rocky Highlands of Scotland, around Loch Leven and Glen Coe, filming in the some of the same areas as as Highlander. Braveheart location: the Scottish highlands: Loch Leven, Scotland | Photograph: iStockphoto © Juliane Jacobs

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