Coldwater Filming Locations Revealed: Inside the Real Places Behind ITV’s Chilling Thriller
In a tight-knit Scottish town, anxiety reigns as John tests the limits of masculinity and loyalty.
ITV has a new thriller, and it is very much playing the cozy-village-hiding-a-nightmare game. Coldwater drops Andrew Lincoln and Indira Varma into a picture-postcard Scottish town that looks peaceful enough to sell postcards. It isn’t. Let’s talk what it is, why the place matters, and where they actually filmed this very not-actually-real village.
What the show’s doing
John (Andrew Lincoln) and his wife Fiona (Indira Varma) bail on London for a quiet life with their two kids. The village looks warm and welcoming, the neighbors are all smiles, and then John gets tangled up in increasingly horrific stuff he cannot shake. The scarier it gets, the sunnier the streets seem, which is kind of the point: the nicer the surface, the deeper the rot.
The writer’s headspace (and the show’s themes)
Series creator David Ireland wrote the first episode in 2020, when a lot of us were climbing the walls. He was running a ton, reading the Bible and true crime, and talking with his wife about moving to the countryside. He sees the show as wrestling with faith and community, and says every watch reveals something new.
"I wrote the first episode in 2020, during the lockdown. I was obsessively running and obsessively reading the Bible and obsessively reading true crime books, and my wife and I were talking about moving to the countryside. All that fed its way in... I think it’s about faith. I think it’s about community."
The village is fake (but the vibes are real)
Coldwater itself is made up. It’s a fictional Scottish town built from locations in and around Glasgow. Ireland wanted an idealized rural Scotland: the handsome church, the good coffee, the friendly-but-slightly-odd locals who know your business and maybe judge you less than they claim. He also admits he tried to leave behind his usual subjects (violence, tribalism, identity) and, surprise, could not escape them.
Cast notes and the Scotland effect
Eve Myles (she plays Rebecca, John and Fiona’s neighbor) ties the setting directly to the story: John runs from London chaos straight into the jaws of his biggest monster, all wrapped in the landscape’s intoxicating beauty. The show likes to zig where you expect it to zag, with reveals meant to blindside you. Ewen Bremner (Tommy, Rebecca’s husband) talks about how Scotland holds this ancient, mythical pull for Southerners, especially Londoners. Off-camera, he says Myles, Varma, and Lincoln fell hard for Glasgow — lots of great meals and frequent cast catch-ups after work. Honestly, can’t blame them.
Where they actually shot it
- Dunlop, East Ayrshire: About 20 miles southeast of Glasgow. Most of the village exteriors are here, including the church that’s central to the community onscreen. Dunlop leans into local produce (yes, there’s a cheese shop), independent stores, and the local pub, The Smuggler’s Inn. Director Lee Haven Jones wanted the place to feel aspirational and genuinely livable — beautiful but grounded — so we get why John and Fiona would move there.
- Glen Fruin and Loch Lomond: For the sweeping stuff — valleys, streams, woodland — they headed to Glen Fruin, next to Loch Lomond, the freshwater lake inside Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. In the show, these landscapes feel like part of the village. In reality, they’re northwest of Glasgow and roughly 40 miles north of Dunlop. Movie magic, basically.
Who’s who behind the camera
Written by David Ireland and directed by Lee Haven Jones. The location choices aren’t just pretty — they’re doing thematic heavy lifting, setting up that tension between the inviting surface and the danger underneath.
When and where to watch
Coldwater premieres on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday 14 September 2025.