Film Locations: Under the Salt Marsh
9th of Nov, 2026.
FILM LOCATIONS: UNDER SALT MARSH
Key Takeaways:
Under Salt Marsh became Sky's biggest original drama debut since The Day of the Jackal, built almost entirely on the real coastline of North Wales rather than a studio backlot. The marshes, estuaries and villages of Anglesey and Gwynedd carried the look of the whole series.
The production leaned on genuinely remote, weather-exposed locations rather than doubles closer to a studio base. That choice is exactly why the series looks and feels the way it does — and exactly why so few productions attempt it.
A confirmed Season 2 is relocating the story to Scotland, which tells its own story about how producers think about landscape as a creative decision, not just a logistical one.
A Welsh Coastline Doing the Heaviest Lifting
Most crime dramas fake their isolation. Under Salt Marsh didn't have to — it went and found genuinely isolated places and built a fictional village, Morfa Halen, around what was already there. The production split between North and South Wales, with the marshland scenes concentrated in the north, where location scouts went looking for landscapes that felt, in their words, "vast and overwhelming." That's a brief most agencies rarely get, and it's a reminder of how much a real location can do that a set simply can't.
Snowdonia Chapel, a film location in Wales.
Anglesey and the Marshes of Newborough Forest
A large share of the marsh and dune work was shot around Newborough Forest, on Anglesey, prized for its combination of dunes, tidal marshland and open coastal views in a single stretch of ground. Few locations let a camera move from forest to dune to open water without a single cut to a different site — this one does.
Fairbourne: A Village Playing Itself
Rather than dressing a town to look like somewhere fictional, the production largely let Fairbourne — a small village close to Snowdonia — play itself: streets, seafront and open marshland standing in almost unaltered for Morfa Halen. It's a useful case study in a point we make to clients often — sometimes the most convincing version of "fictional village" is simply a real one, filmed honestly.
Barmouth, the Mawddach Estuary and Shell Island
Further locations included Barmouth, the wide tidal sweep of the Mawddach Estuary, and Shell Island near Llanbedr — three sites that, strung together, gave the production water, shoreline and open skyline without ever leaving a twenty-mile stretch of coast. For a schedule under pressure, that kind of geographic compactness is as valuable as any single location's looks.
Menai Bridge and the Wider Anglesey Coast
The areas around Menai Bridge rounded out the Anglesey work, giving the production a mix of built environment and open water within reach of the same production base — the kind of practical clustering that keeps unit moves, and budgets, under control.
Rhigos Chapel House, a film location in Wales.
Why North Wales Keeps Winning Location Briefs
Scale that doesn't need dressing. Dunes, estuaries and open marshland read as genuinely remote on camera without a single visual effect.
Light and weather as a tool, not a problem. Productions chasing a bleak, exposed look find it naturally here, rather than fighting for it with grading.
Strong local filming infrastructure. North Wales has hosted enough major productions now that local authorities and landowners know how to support a shoot at pace.
Genuine geographic compactness. Coast, village, forest and estuary within a short drive of each other, which keeps logistics — and therefore cost — manageable.
Next Up: Scotland
Sky confirmed a second season days before this piece went to print, with the story and production moving north to a remote Scottish setting. It's a significant vote of confidence in landscape-first filmmaking, and worth watching for anyone sourcing similarly exposed, dramatic locations — Scotland's west coast and islands offer the same qualities that made North Wales work so well here.
Silverstein Locations' View
Under Salt Marsh is a good reminder that the UK's value to productions isn't limited to its country houses and period streets. Wales's coastline did something no set build could have matched, and did it at a fraction of the cost. We work with landowners, farms and coastal estates across the UK to get exactly this kind of landscape properly documented and production-ready, long before a scout comes looking for it.
Sourcing a Landscape-Led Location?
If your brief needs real scale, real weather and real isolation rather than a convincing double, tell us what the story needs and we'll go beyond the obvious shortlist.