BBC Merlin Filming Locations

Fforest Fawr is a lovely woodland just north of Cardiff, near Junction 32 of the M4, stretching to the east of the village Tongwynlais. We are already familiar with parts of it, as Merlin has used Castell Coch and a couple of wooded areas just off the Castell car park.

Merlin has also filmed at Three Bears Caves, which is easily accessible from the Fforest Fawr Car Park further up the Heol-y-Fforest Road. Just before you get to the Caves, there is an archway leading off to the right, marking the entrance to the Lost or Found Trail - a walking track featuring various sculptures and a lookout across the Taff River Valley.

A while ago I received a comment on the web site from miss_corerupted, who suggested I check out the log circle on the Lost or Found Trail, as filming took place there. So Mr L and I headed off to have a wander one muddy day in September. We took various photos of the general area, cos it's so delightful… so when Ros recently commented that the 'generic forest scenes' in episodes 407 and 408 were filmed in the Fforest Fawr, and specifically just within the Trail entrance, I was able to put two and two together to make five. Hurrah!

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This is a quick post to thank the wonderful pakafe - locations detective extraordinaire - for tracking down some places that had really been starting to bug me. :-)

If you haven't checked it out yet, this (image intense!) post of hers describes her recent adventures. I was lucky enough to meet her last Friday morning at Castell Coch, and she showed me Three Bears Caves and The Stream (aka the River Ely at Miskin). Hurrah! I had been hanging out to find both of those places. And pakafe  also confirmed which scene the boys had filmed just off the car park at Castell Coch. It's been really great to get all this extra information.

I have now posted about the caves and the stream on the Merlin Locations website, updated the page on Castell Coch, and posted images to my Flickr account.

Thank you, pakafe! It's great to have you on board!

P.S. Someone has commented via the merloc website that filming has been happening at Castell Coch itself! It seems as if they're using some of the exterior bits of the castle. This will prove interesting!