House of the Dragon is set to film in Wales this summer as production of the second season of the huge HBO TV series gets underway. Scenes for the show are due to be filmed in Dinorwig Quarry in Gwynedd, which has been used as a filming location for several TV and film productions, according to North Wales Live.
The show, which stars Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy, aired its debut season in summer, 2022, and is a prequel to George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones, which ran for eight years on HBO until 2019.
North Wales Live was shown a leaked map of locations and it’s believed that four filming sets will be created by the production crew at different points in the former slate quarry.
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Among the locations being used for the sets are the remains of one of the mills that were historically used by craftsmen to cut the slate mined from the quarry. Meanwhile, the Llyn Padarn and Llanberis viewpoint will be transformed into a tech base on one end, while the larger flatter area above Dinorwig Power Station, better known as Electric mountain, will host a larger preparation area for the production crew.
Several smaller equipment caches will be stashed around the site as well, with one vehicle ‘safe route’ set up to transfer gear across the site.
Public access to Dinorwig – which was at one point in time the world’s second largest slate mine – will be closed for periods during filming and private security is expected to patrol the site throughout. Footpaths in the quarry are due to be closed from Monday, June 26, until Sunday, July 9.
A resident in the Dinorwig area told North Wales Live: “Penmon is where the sets are being built, Newborough is a film location for the ‘sea and beach shoots’ and Dinorwig will also house several filming sets.”
Last month, a Game of Thrones fan also posted a TikTok video appearing to show another set for House of the Dragon, this time on the Gwynedd coast at Trefor. His clip showed a film crew marquee at Y Gwaith Mawr, a large walled granite quarry on the Yr Eifl (The Rivals) mountains.
Other productions that have been filmed at Dinorwig Quarry include Clash of the Titans and Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur.
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