Where Was ‘How To Get To Heaven From Belfast’ Filmed? The Irish Locations Behind The Netflix Crime Comedy, Canada Reviews

Derry Girls fans rejoice because the hit comedy’s creator, Lisa McGee, is back with another show that simultaneously touches the heart, whacks the funny bone and gives the nervous system a jolt.

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast branches out beyond – far beyond – Derry, though.

The new Netflix eight-parter spans almost the entirety of the Emerald Isle, as well as a corner of London, as it spins a dark, complex and often wildly funny story of three 38-year-old women trying to find out what happened to an old school friend.

If Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Machine was an increasingly battered Land Rover Discovery and its sleuths were fuelled up on a diet of shots, white wines and noughties bangers, it might look a bit like this intoxicating, offbeat mystery-thriller.

Photograph: Chris Barr/NetflixSinead Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne and Roisin Gallagher in ’How to Get to Heaven from Belfast’

What is How to Get To Heaven From Belfast about?

Our sisters-in-sleuthing are successful TV writer Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), stressed-out mum Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and carer Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne). The trio are reunited when they’re invited to the wake of the fourth member of their old schoolgirl gang, Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe). Except that it isn’t Greta in the coffin. Cue a chaotic investigation from three bickering buddies.

‘I wanted a shit, female, Northern Irish A-Team!’ McGee tells The Guardian of the inspiration behind her road-trip-mystery-crime-thriller-black-comedy (yes, it really is all those things).

Full of zingers (‘DNA doesn’t wash off. It’s like Catholicism’), How To Get To Heaven From Belfast is off and running from there, exploring the traumatic experience that bonds the women, celebrating their spiky but supportive friendship and figuring out just what the hell has happen to Greta.

Who stars in How to Get To Heaven From Belfast?

Helping and/or obstructing the trio’s chaotic investigations are a cast of locals, including Greta’s widower, Garda officer Owen (Emmett J Scanlan); his studly second-in-command Liam (Heartstopper’s Darragh Hand); and Booker Darragh (The Commitments’ Bronagh Gallagher), a mysterious – and dangerous – presence in pursuit of the women.

Derry Girls’ Saoirse-Monica Jackson is a lollipop-bright maverick with her own agenda, while Josh Finan is an English investigative journalist on the case of his own dad’s mysterious fate in Knockdara years earlier.

The Ballad of Wallis Island’s Tom Basden, Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley and Irish comic legend Ardal O’Hanlon round out the vintage cast.

Where was How to Get To Heaven From Belfast filmed?

Where wasn’t it filmed might be the easier question. More than 100 locations across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and London were used in the making of the show.

Supervising location manager David McKee, a veteran of Game of Thrones and the live action How to Train Your Dragon, gives us the inside story of the Guinness-black crime comedy. ‘We wanted it to be cinematic with a lot of colour, and a bit of an Americana vibe as well,’ he explains. ‘Aside from the southernmost point of Ireland, which we just couldn’t achieve logistically, we scoured the island [for locations].’

The Knockdara hotel was filmed at The Harbourview, County Antrim

The little seaside fishing village of Carnlough, an hour north of Belfast, doubles as the town of Knockdara, where Greta’s wake takes place and the early action unfolds. It’s here that the trio check into the local hotel, run by wacky innkeeper Seamus (Father Ted’s Ardal O’Hanlon), and proceed to get blotto on most of the available wines and spirits.

The real-life spot used was The Harbourview Hotel, a waterside hostelry that changed hands during production and has since been given a fancy refurb by its new owners. It’s now Ireland’s first ‘whiskey hotel’, owned by a master distiller and boosting a mighty 200 different whiskeys.

In the story, Knockdara is actually located in Donegal across the border. (Fun fact: the fictional town also appears in McGee’s 2020 telly thriller The Deceived starring Paul Mescal, although it was filmed elsewhere.)

‘The hotel was tough to find,’ says McKee. ‘They let us come in for two weeks while they were still open to the public.’

📍 Here’s how to stay at The Harbourview Hotel

Saoirse’s London ‘Murder Code’ meetings were shot on the South Bank and in Belfast

In parallel with her murder investigation in Ireland, Saoirse is also dealing with the egotistical star of her cop show Murder Code and the attendant stresses of the TV production business. ‘We only shot for a day in London and that was the exterior scenes on the South Bank, but the interiors were actually done in Belfast,’ says McKee. ‘The restaurant scene where they’re talking to the agent is the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast. The BAFTA [scenes] were filmed at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.’

The first encounter with Booker was filmed at Murlough Bay, Northern Ireland

Played by Bronagh Gallagher, the intimidating, gun-packing figure of Booker is introduced in a western-style standoff with the three pals at this spectacular pass on the north coast. ‘It doesn’t always feature among the tourist attractions in Northern Ireland – everyone goes to the Giant’s Causeway – but it’s stunning,’ says McKee. The equally spectacular Donegal landscape, across the border, also features in Booker’s scenes.

The Portuguese resort scenes were filmed in Malta

Saoirse, Robyn and Dara’s search takes them to the Algarve resort of Sagres and another encounter with the ruthless Booker. Those poolside and seaside scenes were filmed at two hotels in Malta: Westin Dragonara and Salini resorts.

The creepy motel was filmed in County Louth, Ireland

A later episode sees the trio checking into an American-style motel run by a worrying character called Norman. ‘We don’t have that Americana style of motel in Ireland, so this was one of the hardest locations to find,’ says McKee. ‘It was a disused hotel across the border in County Louth.’

The final showdown takes place in the Hidden Village of Galboly, Northern Ireland

You might recognise the remote setting for episode 8’s climactic scenes from Game of Thrones (where it starred as Runestone in the Vale of Arryn) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (ditto, the halfling village of Longsaddle). The real location? This secluded stone-walled community deep in the Antrim Hills. ‘That was our most ambitious location,’ says McKee. ‘It is absolutely spectacular and was worth the effort.’

Belfast was the location for clubbing scenes and the friends’ first rendezvous

‘The title has Belfast in it, but it’s more than just Belfast,’ says McKee. The Northern Ireland capital does feature prominently, with The Duke of York pub and the Titanic Quarter both making cameo appearances. There was some sleight of hand for the ladies’ pissed-up dancing at the Knockdara Hotel. ‘That was filmed at the Dockers Club in Belfast. We wanted a wider disco space than the hotel had.’

The Late Late Show and airport scenes were filmed in Dublin

The Irish capital gave the show its airport scenes (scenes set at Dublin and Belfast airports were both filmed here), as well RTÉ Television Centre, where Saoirse’s makes a disastrous – and accidental – appearance on Patrick Kielty’s chat show The Late Late Show.

The lighthouse is Saint John’s Point, Northern Ireland

This remote lighthouse in County Down is used as a getaway for Booker – and an improvised prison of sorts. The adjacent houses are available for stays.

📍Here’s how to rent a house at St John’s Point

The burning cabin was filmed on the Clandeboye Estate near Belfast

The series flashes back to a mysterious cabin blaze in a wood nears the girls’ school. ‘We built the cabin,’ says McKee. ‘It was a really, really incredible build in about 1500 acres of woodland. There’s this beautiful patch of wood and we burnt [the cabin down] over three or four nights of night shoots. It’s spectacular.’