The Lost City of Z filming locations sit in two places you would not expect to share a production crew: Belfast and the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Charlie Hunnam’s take on the explorer Percy Fawcett spent five weeks in Northern Ireland during August and September 2015 before the cast and crew flew out to South America to finish the jungle scenes. Belfast City Hall, Strangford Lough and the Antrim Hills all did their bit before the cameras ever reached the Amazon.
For ConnollyCove, an Ireland-based travel and culture platform, this kind of double life is a familiar story. Northern Ireland has spent the past decade becoming one of the most adaptable backdrops in film, standing in for Westeros, Edwardian London and now the road to a lost civilisation. Here is where The Lost City of Z was actually shot, and how you can visit these places for yourself.
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Where Was The Lost City of Z Filmed in Northern Ireland?
Belfast served as the production’s home base for five weeks, with Belfast City Hall, a converted school and several County Down estates standing in for Edwardian London and the English countryside. James Grey’s crew arrived on 19 August 2015 and worked through until late September, moving between the city centre and the coast as the script demanded.
Belfast City Hall as the Royal Geographical Society
The grand entrance hall and marble staircase of Belfast City Hall became the setting for the Royal Geographical Society press scenes, with period costumes turning the working civic building into 1920s London for a single day of shooting on 7 September 2015. Anyone who has stood in that hall knows why it works. The scale and the stonework do most of the job before a single prop arrives.
Filming a period drama inside a functioning government building takes coordination most tourists never see, which is exactly the kind of detail we like to dig into. Around the corner, Craigavon House in East Belfast supplied a further round of period exteriors on 2 September, giving the production a second London-adjacent street without leaving the city.
Strangford Lough, Greyabbey and Castle Ward
Once the crew left Belfast, County Down took over. Greyabbey Village and the shores of Strangford Lough were used for outdoor expedition and departure scenes shot on 28 August, with the lough’s shifting tides and quiet villages giving the film a rural English feel.
Castle Ward, already familiar to fans as Winterfell from Game of Thrones, and nearby Myra Castle also appear in the finished cut. If you are planning a trip around County Down, this stretch of coastline rewards a full day rather than a quick stop.
The Antrim Hills Recreate a First World War Battlefield
One of the more surprising locations is the Antrim Hills, where the crew dug real trenches to recreate a First World War battle sequence. The same hills have done service in other productions, but few visitors realise a quiet Irish hillside once stood in for the trenches of the Somme.
Ballintoy in County Antrim rounds out the Northern Ireland leg, with Hunnam and Miller filming there on 31 August. It is worth pairing a visit here with nearby Ballintoy Harbour, another location fans of screen tourism will already recognise.
Bangor’s Quiet Role in the Production
Bangor Castle Leisure Centre hosted a day of filming on 13 September 2015, adding the County Down town to a growing list of productions shot along this stretch of coast. It is a smaller credit than Belfast City Hall, but it says something about how far screen tourism has spread beyond the obvious spots.
A Coastal Town With a Growing Filmography
Bangor has since featured in productions ranging from Line of Duty to Here Before, according to Discover Northern Ireland’s own screen tourism route. That kind of repeat business does not happen by accident. Production crews return to towns that already have the infrastructure, the crews and the local knowledge in place.
Why Do Productions Keep Choosing County Down
County Down offers coastline, castles and countryside within a short drive of Belfast, which cuts costs and travel time for a production schedule. “Every time we walk a new set of visitors around Castle Ward or Strangford Lough, someone is surprised to learn how many different films share the same few miles of coast,” says Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove. That density is precisely what makes the region worth a dedicated trip rather than a single afternoon.
From Belfast to Santa Marta: Recreating the Amazon in Colombia
Once the Northern Ireland leg wrapped, the production moved to Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to shoot the jungle scenes that give the film its title. Santa Marta served as the crew’s base, with the surrounding rainforest and rivers standing in for the Amazon that Fawcett himself explored.
Why Colombia Doubled for the Amazon
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the forests around Tayrona National Park offered the dense, layered rainforest look the script needed, without the logistical difficulty of filming deep in the Brazilian Amazon itself. The result on screen feels remote and untouched, even though the crew had a coastal city within reach for supplies and support.
Tayrona National Park and the Don Diego River
Several jungle sequences were shot along the Don Diego River, with the production also using the small community of Rio Ancho as a base for scenes set among indigenous villages. Anyone who has travelled in this part of Colombia will recognise the same combination of river, canopy and heat that defines the film’s middle section.
The Challenges of Filming in the Jungle
Cast interviews from the time describe a difficult shoot, with heat, insects, and unpredictable weather all working against the schedule. That difficulty is part of what gives the finished film its texture. A rainforest shot on a soundstage rarely convinces anyone, and this one does.
The Real Percy Fawcett and the Search for Z
Percy Harrison Fawcett was a British Army officer and surveyor who became convinced that an advanced ancient civilisation, which he called simply “Z”, lay hidden somewhere in the Amazon basin. His obsession and his eventual disappearance in 1925 while searching for it are the true story behind the film.
Who Was Percy Fawcett
Fawcett was sent to South America in the early 1900s to map the border between Bolivia and Brazil, work that gave him an unusually detailed knowledge of the region’s rivers and terrain. That mapping work is what first convinced him that the jungle held more history than most of his peers believed possible.
From David Grann’s Book to the Screen
Director James Grey adapted the film from David Grann’s 2009 non-fiction book of the same name, which reconstructs Fawcett’s expeditions from journals, letters and surviving expedition records. Grann’s research forms the backbone of the film’s more grounded moments, even where the screenplay compresses years of expeditions into a single narrative arc.
What Happened to Fawcett
Fawcett vanished in Brazil’s Mato Grosso region in 1925 alongside his son Jack, and neither man was ever found. Theories about his fate range from the jungle simply overwhelming the expedition to Fawcett living out his life among a local community, but no version has ever been confirmed.
Planning a Screen Tourism Trip to the Northern Ireland Locations
Most of the Northern Ireland locations from The Lost City of Z sit within an hour of Belfast, which makes a single-day trip realistic if you plan the route around County Down first and the city centre second.
Visiting Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall offers free guided tours on weekdays, giving visitors a chance to see the same marble staircase and entrance hall used for the Royal Geographical Society scenes. Combine it with a wider look at the city by starting your trip with our Belfast attractions guide before heading out to the coast.
Exploring Strangford Lough and Castle Ward
Castle Ward is managed by the National Trust and opens year-round, with Strangford Lough itself best explored by car along the coast road or by ferry between Strangford and Portaferry. Wildlife watchers should build in extra time here, since seals and migratory birds are a regular sight on the water.
Best Time of Year to Visit
Late spring through early autumn gives the most reliable weather for walking the Antrim Hills or spending a day on the water at Strangford Lough. Winter visits are still worthwhile for Belfast City Hall and the coastal towns, though pack for wind and rain regardless of the season.
Pairing It With Other Northern Ireland Film Locations
Given how much of this route overlaps with other productions, it is worth building a longer itinerary. Ballintoy sits close to several Game of Thrones sites, and travellers with a broader interest in on-screen Ireland can extend the trip using our guide to Irish film locations.
Why Northern Ireland Keeps Winning Film Productions
The Lost City of Z is one entry in a long list of productions that have used Northern Ireland to stand in for somewhere else entirely, and that reputation keeps growing rather than fading.
Game of Thrones and the Locations That Came Before
Castle Ward’s role as Winterfell predates its appearance in The Lost City of Z, and the overlap between the two productions is one reason screen tourism in County Down has grown so steadily. Visitors chasing one film often discover three or four others along the same stretch of coast.
Marvel and the Next Generation of Productions
More recent arrivals include Marvel-adjacent shoots and Kraven the Hunter, part of a broader wave covered in our guide to Marvel filming locations. Northern Ireland’s studios and crews have grown alongside this demand, which keeps the region attractive to productions that need both period buildings and open countryside in the same postcode.
A Region Built Around Real Storytelling
ConnollyCove produces in-depth guides to Irish heritage, Celtic mythology and film locations across the island, and this stretch of County Down and Belfast sits at the centre of several of them. Based in Ireland, ConnollyCove covers the destinations behind the films whilst keeping an eye on the region’s wider cultural traditions.
Conclusion
The Lost City of Z filming locations tell two very different stories. Belfast City Hall, Strangford Lough and the Antrim Hills recreated Edwardian London and a First World War battlefield, while Santa Marta and Tayrona National Park stood in for the Amazon that Percy Fawcett spent his life searching for. Both halves of the shoot are open to visitors today, and both reward a slower, more curious trip than a quick photo stop.
FAQs About The Lost City of Z Filming Locations
Here are quick answers to the questions travellers ask most often about visiting these locations.
Where in Northern Ireland was The Lost City of Z filmed?
The main locations were Belfast City Hall, Craigavon House, Strangford Lough, Greyabbey, Castle Ward, the Antrim Hills and Ballintoy. Bangor Castle Leisure Centre also hosted a day of filming.
Was The Lost City of Z filmed in the actual Amazon?
No. The jungle scenes were shot around Santa Marta in Colombia, including Tayrona National Park and the Don Diego River.
Can you visit Belfast City Hall from the film?
Yes. Belfast City Hall offers free guided tours on weekdays, and the entrance hall used in the film is included on the standard route.
Is Castle Ward the same location used in Game of Thrones?
Yes. Castle Ward doubled as Winterfell in Game of Thrones before it appeared in The Lost City of Z, and the National Trust property is open to visitors year-round.
