How the British countryside became 2026’s breakout onscreen star

“On that bleak hill-top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made me shiver through every limb,” so wrote Emily Brontë. In a story studded with untameable lust, unbreakable love, fierce tempers and shocking acts of revenge, perhaps the most faithful aspect of Emerald Fennell’s latest film, “Wuthering Heights”, to its 1847 novel is the tempestuous depiction of the remote English countryside. The Yorkshire moors, to be exact.

Where was Wuthering Heights filmed? All the North Yorkshire filming locations from Emerald Fennel’s adaptation

Behind the scenes of the latest Brontë adaptation, set in North Yorkshire

Whether you love the film or loathe its notorious deviation from the source, Fennell’s devotion to the dramatic landscape that outfits the twists and turns of the plot is unmistakable. Mist rolls in with theatrical intent; passionate red sunsets light up the horizon; nature literally and purposefully presses in on the house itself. “Very early on, we knew we wanted to be much more expressive,” Emerald Fennell commented. “One of the main things we did was we said that nature invades Wuthering Heights, the place.”

The beauty of the Yorkshire moors hardly needs Brontë or Fennell to sell its rugged, sweeping vistas to the world. But admittedly, the novel’s impact and its reintroduction to international consciousness have given the region fresh allure.

The wild, wet Yorkshire moors have long inspired writers, poets and creatives – most recently used by Emerald Fennell in her adaptation of Wuthering Heights

Warner Bros

The cobbled streets and charming boutiques of Haworth – also known as Brontë country – is England’s green and pleasant land at its most storybook-esque; it acquired its name for the steady trudge of literary tourism the town receives. For those seeking the atmospheric, “half-savage, hardy, and free” scenes fleshed out in Fennell’s film, the BBC has reported that the Yorkshire Dales National Park is expecting a major boom in both domestic and international tourism this year.

This is not an exclusive phenomenon to Wuthering Heights and its generational adaptations. 40 per cent of UK adults are now travelling to locations they’ve seen in period dramas, according to a recent report from Airbnb. It’s fortunate, then, that there are a lot of period dramas of recent years to travel to.

Bridgerton is back for its fourth season, transporting readers to the countryside and honey-hued houses of Bath and Somerset

Netflix