Merlin

Where Was Merlin Filmed? Puzzlewood, Clearwell Caves and the Lake of Avalon

Camelot was a castle in France. The forests, caves and lakes of Albion were here.

Merlin (BBC One, 2008 to 2012, 65 episodes) was filmed in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley across all five series, at Puzzlewood, Clearwell Caves, Speech House Lake, Cannop Ponds, Goodrich Castle and Raglan Castle. Camelot itself was the Château de Pierrefonds in northern France.

Puzzlewood puts it simply on its own website: the wood "featured in all five series of Merlin, providing a hideaway for Morganna." It also provided the forest where a unicorn died, the paths Arthur's knights stalked along, and the trees under which Merlin finally showed Arthur what he could do. The caves under Camelot were an old iron mine at Clearwell. The Lake of Avalon was a fishing lake behind the Speech House. Most of it sits within a few miles of Coleford, and all of it is open to visit.

Merlin filming locations at a glance

Puzzlewood: Morgana's hideaway

Puzzlewood is a mile and a half of paths through moss-covered rock, wooden bridges and twisted trees, and it turns up in every series of Merlin.

The first time is the opening of The Labyrinth of Gedref (series 1, episode 11). Merlin, Arthur and the knights stalk their prey between the rocks, and the prey turns out to be a unicorn. Arthur kills it, and the curse that follows drives the rest of the episode.

In The Eye of the Phoenix (series 3, episode 8) Warwick Davis plays Grettir, the gatekeeper who helps Arthur, Merlin and Gwaine on the quest to the Fisher King's realm, and the show lets the wood's bridges and lookouts do the work. Davis came back to Puzzlewood three years later for Jack the Giant Slayer.

The wood's biggest moment is the last one. In The Diamond of the Day (series 5, episodes 12 and 13), Morgana and Mordred's scenes were filmed here, and so was the scene the whole series had been building to: Merlin, under Puzzlewood's trees, telling the wounded Arthur the truth about his magic.

BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat went on set in 2010 and filmed the cast between the rocks.

Puzzlewood is open daily. An average visit takes about three hours, there's a café and a small play area, and the cottages on site sleep four or eight if you want the wood to yourself before the gates open. No dogs, because of the animals.

Local tip: the paths are uneven and the rock is slippery after rain, which is most of the year. Wear boots, not trainers.

Clearwell Caves: the caverns under Camelot

Whenever the show needed a tunnel under the castle, it came to Clearwell. The caves are an old iron mine, worked for thousands of years, and the ochre in the rock gives them the red that shows on screen.

They first appear in The Curse of Cornelius Sigan (series 2, episode 1), as the dig beneath Camelot that uncovers the sorcerer's tomb. In The Crystal Cave (series 3, episode 5) they become the cave itself, where Merlin sees the future and Morgana's part in it.

Series 5 opens in them, with Arthur's Bane (episodes 1 and 2) using the caves beneath Morgana's stronghold at Ismere, and The Disir (episode 5) sends Merlin down to meet the three soothsayers in the same red rock.

Clearwell has had other screen lives, as the Sycorax spaceship in Doctor Who among them. Opening dates vary through the year and are listed on the caves' booking calendar, with deep-level trips on Saturdays in autumn. Check before you set off.

The Lake of Avalon: Speech House Lake

The lake where Arthur nearly drowns is a small fishing lake along Spruce Ride, south of the Speech House Hotel. In The Gates of Avalon (series 1, episode 7) it's where Arthur is nearly drowned and Merlin pulls him out.

Two episodes later, in Excalibur (series 1, episode 9), Merlin hides the sword in the same water. If you look closely, the mountains behind it are computer-generated. The lake isn't.

Speech House Woods is open from dawn to dusk and parking is free. The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail and Woorgreens Nature Reserve both start from the same car park, and the lake has a second screen credit: the Eel Café in The Change was built on its bank.

A few minutes away, Cannop Ponds appear in Another's Sorrow (series 5, episode 4), where Merlin finds Mithian's message about Morgana by the stream.

Local tip: there's no overnight parking at Speech House Woods. If you want the lake at first light, with the mist still on it, stay at the Speech House Hotel up the road.

The castles: Raglan and Goodrich

Two real castles stood in for the ones in the story.

Raglan Castle, built in the 15th century and looked after by Cadw, plays the Isle of the Blessed in Le Morte d'Arthur (series 1, episode 13), where Merlin goes to face Nimueh, arriving by boat across the moat with the smoke machines working hard.

It returns in The Sins of the Father (series 2, episode 8), the episode where Morgause beats Arthur in combat and lets him speak to his dead mother. Raglan is a few miles over the Welsh border from Monmouth, open daily, with hours that change through the year.

Goodrich Castle, a Norman castle above the Wye near Ross-on-Wye, appears in the same series 2 episode. It's an English Heritage site, open daily from 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4.30. The Coppett Hill walk starts from its car park, and Coppett Hill has a screen story of its own.

So where was Camelot?

Not in Britain. Camelot was the Château de Pierrefonds, a 19th-century rebuild of a medieval castle north of Paris, and that's where the courtyard, the throne room exteriors and most of the castle scenes were filmed.

Interiors used Penshurst Place in Kent, and the first series' tunnels used Chislehurst Caves. The show was made by Shine with BBC Wales, and the fifth series was based near Cardiff from March 2012. So the castle was French, the studio was Welsh, and the forest was ours.

Was the new Merlin filmed here?

No. The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin (2026) was shot in Italy and Hungary, with Budapest and Rome's Cinecittà Studios as the main bases, according to its own production diary and IMDb. If you've searched for its locations and landed here, the forest you're thinking of is the BBC one.

A Merlin day out

Start at Puzzlewood when it opens and give it three hours. Clearwell Caves is a few minutes' drive away for the afternoon, if it's an open day. Finish at Speech House Lake for the Avalon shot as the light goes. Raglan and Goodrich make a second day, with the Coppett Hill walk between them.

Nobody from the production ever published a full list of where each scene was filmed, so this page is built from what the sites themselves say and what viewers have matched up. If you spot a scene we've missed, tell us - we'd love to hear about it.

Stay in the story

Puzzlewood's own cottages sleep four or eight and come with the wood after hours. The Speech House Hotel is the closest bed to Avalon. For everything else, browse our places to stay in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley.

More screen locations to find

Puzzlewood is also where Star Wars and Doctor Who were filmed, and Clearwell Caves has its own Doctor Who story. Find Otis's house from Sex Education on the River Wye, read about The Change by the same lake, or follow our Film & TV Trail. And if it's the real Arthur you're after, start with King Arthur in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley.