From Edna Clarke Hall and Sylvia Plath to Kate Bush and Lily Cole, Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë's brooding 1847 novel about destructive love – has long captivated readers and creatives alike. On February 13, 2026, the latest film adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, from award-winning writer, director, and producer Emerald Fennell, will reintroduce the classic 19th-century Gothic tale to the masses once more. And sure to follow? An obsession with the windy heath and wild heather moorlands of Yorkshire, where it was filmed.
Deeply inspired by Brontë’s connection to the landscape of West Yorkshire, where she lived, her only published work of fiction was too disturbing for many when it was released. In January 1848, one critic complained that there wasn’t “a single character which is not utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible” in the entire book. Still, it endured, haunting public consciousness well into the 21st century. First coming to celluloid in a 1920’s silent film, versions throughout the decades have cast Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier (1939), Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche (1992) among many others, each attempting to capture the novel’s most jaw-dropping moments: cruelty and lust for revenge; bitter grief and unrealised longing; acrid betrayals of self, of loved ones, and the intricate remorse and contempt each elicits.
“Because it did defy the conventions of that era, so boldly and so brazenly,” says Murray Tremellen, a curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, “people couldn't ignore it. It's a book that doesn't shy away from exploring some of the darker facets of human nature, but that's where its power lies. In a way, the book is almost more likely to resonate with people who have been through difficult experiences in their own lives.”
Earlier this year, speaking at the Brontë Women’s Writing festival, Fennell shared that reading the novel when she was 14, “cracked her open,” and that her adaptation incorporates “an enormous amount of dialogue” from the original novel, entailing scenes from the first half of the book, and culminating with Cathy’s death. Though some have criticised the casting and the wardrobe’s historical accuracy from the trailer and early stills, Fennell’s version, which will feature an original soundtrack from Charli XCX, is nevertheless hotly anticipated for her characteristic, gripping exploration of the shocking lengths to which obsession can go. This time, unleashed on the Yorkshire moors.
Though a fair amount of filming was done on sets at Sky Studios Elstree in southern Hertfordshire, here are some of the most significant sites used during production.
Old Gang Lead Mines, Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales National Park
In first glimpses of the film, a horse-drawn carriage trundles through a narrow valley cut with a curving bridleway. To one side, building ruins and a tall chimney are visible. In other clips, Robbie and Elordi are seen walking here through mist. These are remains of Yorkshire’s early 19th-century lead mining industry, known as Old Gang Smelt Mill. Sarah Whiteley, Senior Historic Environment Officer at Yorkshire Dales National Park, oversaw the cast and crew’s interaction with this ancient, protected site back in March. “The locations team wanted to put an installation of a sort of cliff face type prop, so we decided which was the least damaging place to put that.”
Before the cast arrived, she explained, the site was closed to passersby while the crew worked to turn an already atmospheric area into an otherworldly film scene: assembling and painting props and incorporating additional vegetation. Then, over 10 days of filming, often in the mornings, Robbie and Elordi and the young actors playing adolescent Cathy and Heathcliff, Owen Cooper and Charlotte Mellington, worked among the archaeological ruins. “There were some fantastic costumes,” she describes, “absolutely beautiful. [The production crew] used dry ice quite a lot to get a foggy kind of look. There was just this fantastic atmosphere of everybody working towards a common goal.”
Park staff encourages anyone visiting the site not to touch the ruins or remove anything from the area and to bear in mind that it’s not the easiest place to get to. “There is no public transit or car park” to reach the start of a one mile walk into the site, cautions the National Park’s communications manager, Mark Sadler, “it requires a bit of planning and forethought.”
Bouldershaw Lane, Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales National Park
The earliest available clips have shown Robbie trudging through a wide field, carrying a bouquet, in a billowing white wedding veil and gown. Not far from the Old Gang site, a road climbs north, towards Langthwaite village and the moorland above it. “About a mile along that road on the right-hand side in a field,” says Sadler, is where this scene took place. “There’s an old farm building which was also used. The field is private, so you can't go into it, but it's visible from the road. If you were doing the five and a half mile circular walk from Surrender Bridge through Old Gang and round Reeth High Moor, you'd be walking past it.”
Melbecks Moor, Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales National Park
Several shots released so far show Robbie and Elordi, or Cooper and Mellington, wandering across the moors or seated looking out over the dales. One such spot may have been Melbecks Moor, where Sadler said additional filming took place. An incredibly remote location, this exposed high moor in upper Swaledale – the valley known for Britain’s highest pub, Tan Hill Inn – is another historic location strewn with remnants of lead mining: disused buildings, old roads, and spoil heaps from centuries past. One of the building ruins was used, he shared, noting that “in some of these locations, props were brought in, special effects were added to fill the landscape out. If you go there now, it's pretty much open moorland with a more than five-mile walk to get to the area.”
“In this part of the National Park,” he explains, “you can have four seasons in one day at any time of the year. It's land that's in private ownership, so it’s about making sure that anybody walking in those areas is respecting the land and the community that works there and being aware that they're quite lengthy walks into very, very remote moorland where there is nothing there.”
Booze Moor, Arkengarthdale, Yorkshire Dales National Park
One of the many dales the park is named for, Arkengarthdale, is its northernmost. Cast and crew had a base in Langthwaite, one of the valley’s few villages, home to the Red Lion Inn, a traditional pub featured in several films and TV series, from which they could access a bridleway leading up and across Booze Moor to open moorland where there are additional remnants of ancient mineworks. More scenes were filmed here, Sadler says, but it’s unclear which.
Simonstone Hall, Hawes, Yorkshire Dales
For about two and a half weeks during filming, Fennell, cast, and crew reserved all 20 rooms of the country house hotel, Simonstone Hall. Owner Jake Dinsdale said Robbie and Elordi stayed in Principal rooms – Elordi opting for a dog-friendly one – and cast and crew ran through scripts and shot post-production interviews onsite during the day. “The [filming] location is very, very close to Simonstone Hall,” explained Dinsdale, who will offer Wuthering Heights-themed stays during February and March 2026 so guests can experience what the cast did during their stay. “They had afternoon tea. They had some great meals together, a Sunday roast. We did some walks with them, and they enjoyed the outdoor fire pits on our terrace late into the night, chatting and laughing. We have some resident pigs, chickens, and peacocks. They really enjoyed those and having a flavour of the countryside. I think that the packages we put together with candlelit dinners, cosy nights, gorgeous views, nice interiors, and open fires aim to offer that same experience.”