Into the Badlands - Wicklow Locations
AMC's post-apocalyptic martial arts series Into the Badlands filmed its second and third seasons in Ireland, after season one was shot around New Orleans. County Wicklow supplied many of the grand estates, wooded glens and mountain views that redefined the look of the show, all within easy reach of Dublin on a private Wicklow day tour.
Wicklow is often called the Garden of Ireland, and Visit Wicklow has long promoted the county as a film landscape, from historic houses to upland lakes. For Into the Badlands, that mix of formal gardens and wild mountain scenery stood in for fortified settlements, training grounds and remote wilderness in the fictional world of Azra and the Badlands.
Powerscourt Estate gates - Into the Badlands location.
Powerscourt Estate
Near Enniskerry, Powerscourt Estate is one of Ireland's best known historic houses and gardens, with about 47 acres of landscaped grounds looking toward the Great Sugar Loaf. Filming location guides identify the formal entrance gates as the gates of the Widow's Sanctuary, while Powerscourt House itself appears in season 3 as Chau's mansion at White Bone Manor. The scale of the avenue, façade and terraces suits scenes of power and authority as well as wide establishing shots.
Powerscourt House - Into the Badlands location.
Powerscourt Waterfall
About 6 km (4 miles) from the main gardens, Powerscourt Waterfall is Ireland's highest waterfall, cascading about 121 metres (397 feet) into a wooded glen at the edge of the Wicklow Mountains. In the series, the area below the falls was used as a training ground for M.K. and the Abbotts. The contrast with the formal estate gardens shows how quickly Wicklow shifts from manicured parkland to rugged natural terrain.
Powerscourt Waterfall - Into the Badlands location.
Lough Tay
Lough Tay, often called the Guinness Lake for the dark water and pale shore seen from the road above, is one of Wicklow's most photographed mountain lakes. It sits below Luggala and Djouce in the same upland landscape that has drawn major productions to the county, including the long-running Vikings series. On a Badlands-themed day, it is a natural stop for the bleak, atmospheric scenery that defined the Irish seasons of the show. The shoreline is private land; the public views are from the Military Road and authorised viewpoints above.
Lough Tay - Wicklow mountain landscape linked with Ireland's film locations.
Killruddery House
Killruddery House, near Bray, is a 17th century country house still lived in by the Brabazon family and open for guided tours and garden visits. Location guides identify it as the Widow's Sanctuary, home of the Widow and her Butterflies. Historic buildings, formal gardens and wooded demesne offered a ready-made setting for interior and exterior scenes, a short drive from Powerscourt and the coast.
Killruddery House - Into the Badlands location.
Today these places can be combined on a private Wicklow day tour from Dublin. The series is fiction, but the landscapes are real: Powerscourt gardens and waterfall, Killruddery, and the mountain views around Lough Tay and Glendalough. For visitors interested in film and television, it is a different way into Wicklow's scenery, with time for photographs and short walks where suitable.
Into the Badlands images courtesy of Atlasofwonders.com