A ghost story set in a fog-bound mansion on Jersey in 1945 – filmed almost entirely in northern Spain. Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others never went near the Channel Islands for its haunted house; it found everything it needed in the green hills of Cantabria.
Where was The Others filmed?
The Others was shot mainly in Spain – the mansion exteriors at the Palacio de los Hornillos in Cantabria, with more filming in Santander and Madrid – plus a little location work on Jersey itself and at Penshurst Place in Kent. For a film drenched in British gloom, it’s a surprisingly Iberian production.
That Spanish setting is the whole trick of the film’s look: the overgrown gardens, the shuttered rooms and the permanent grey fog were built around a real Cantabrian country house rather than a soundstage.
Every The Others location, explained
Palacio de los Hornillos, Cantabria – the haunted house
Grace’s isolated mansion is the Palacio de los Hornillos, a grand early-20th-century country house near Las Fraguas in Cantabria. Its long facade, dark interiors and misty grounds are the film’s beating heart, and it can be rented and visited.
The gardens and the Lime Walk
The eerie garden scenes – including the foggy walk where Grace goes looking for a priest and meets her returning husband – drew on grand estate grounds, with the Lime Walk at Penshurst Place in Kent providing one memorable avenue of trees.
Santander and Madrid – interiors and inserts
Additional filming took place around Santander (including the Plaza del Ayuntamiento) and in Madrid, where the Puerta del Sol appears, tying the production firmly to Spain.
Jersey – the real setting, briefly
The story is set on Jersey in the aftermath of the German occupation, and the production did shoot some material on the island – the only time the film actually visited the place it depicts.
Planning a visit
The Palacio de los Hornillos in Cantabria is the destination for fans – a genuine stately home you can arrange to visit, set in exactly the misty countryside the film made so unnerving. Madrid‘s Puerta del Sol is a natural add-on if you’re touring the Spanish locations, and Penshurst Place in Kent is open to visitors for the Lime Walk.
