Tucked away on Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula, a tiny crescent of thatched cottages nestled around a working harbour form the fishing village of Cadgwith. The beach is scattered with colourful fishing boats, and quaint narrow lanes meander uphill from the shingle cove. The location is so effortlesly charming that it requires very little cinematic enhancement – which may explain why it now has a starring in HBO’s new Harry Potter series as a key location.
The production arrived in Cadgwith in 2025 to film scenes for the upcoming adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The village’s harbour and the 400-year-old Cadgwith Cove Inn were used as locations, reportedly with local fishing boats and residents appearing alongside the cast. The Cadgwith scenes are said to have included Dominic McLaughlin, who plays Harry, and the Dursleys, with the production team bringing in artificial rain to transform the already atmospheric Cornish setting.
For a series that brings to mind enchanted castles and ominous alleyways, Cadgwith seems to be an unexpectedly good fit. The architecture has a storybook quality that film productions spend enormous amounts of money trying to replicate in studios.
It is easy to appreciate the whimsical appeal of the village, which was established in the 16th century, with its whitewashed walls and weathered stone. However, unlike a film set, Cadgwith is still a working fishing community. Fishing has shaped the settlement for centuries and remains an important part of life around the harbour. Today, Cadgwith is one of Cornwall's last traditional, full-time working fishing coves.
Cornwall has long been a natural setting for stories of the supernatural. Its coastline is threaded with folklore, legends and tales of shipwrecks and smugglers, while the county’s coves and windswept cliffs have provided cinematic backdrops for everything from period dramas to fantasy films. The Harry Potter production has also filmed elsewhere on the Cornish coast, including nearby Kynance Cove, whose dramatic rock formations offer a rather more otherworldly landscape.
Much of the magic of Harry Potter has come from the collision between the extraordinary and the familiar – and the idea of a magical world hiding behind ordinary, familiar locations. For anyone keen to visit Cadgwith after watching the new series – which will premiere on Christmas Day 2026 – the pleasure will be less about finding a theme-park version of Harry Potter and more about discovering a fascinating real-life village, with just enough magical appeal to feel as though it belongs somewhere slightly outside our own Muggle world.
