A TV Tourist’s Diary – The Dept. Q Edition

It was probably some time in October 2025 that the idea was sparked that I should do something special for my 50^th birthday. Since I love Scotland and it had been a while that I’d been to Edinburgh, it seemed like both a crazy and a cool idea to go to Scotland’s capital. Granted, not the best time of year to do this in January. But there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad choice of clothing, right? And so, soon after, the time off work was approved and my best friend and I were booked on flights.

Upon checking where some of the Dept. Q filming locations were, I happened to find that there’s a quaint little hotel right next to the house that they used for Carl’s tenement out in Leith, and so we booked ourselves a lovely looking suite with a kitchenette and two bedrooms for four nights.

Day 1 – Dept. Q Locations – Carl’s Tenement

Arriving in Leith on Thursday and pulling our suitcases past “Carl’s house” was defintely a little surreal. Of course I had to take a few nerdy photos right away.

The house that Carl’s flat is in is right opposite a former golf course – now a public park and popular with local families, dog walkers and runners. A really nice area in Leith, close to the Firth of Forth, that feels cosy and laid back with not that many tourists. A little out of the way of all the tourist attractions, it’s still easily accessible from the city centre by tram and bus. If you ask me, Vic and Carl chose well to make that their home.

Day 2 – Dept. Q Locations – Outside Of The City

The next day, we rented a car for a day to drive around some of the locations that were on the outskirts, respectively outside of the city. Our first stop was the fisherman’s cottage on the coast that was used as the location for Jamie Lingard’s house on Mhòr.

The place we had in mind for parking the car unfortunately wasn’t accessible this time of year, so we found an alternative car park a little further out and hiked from there. It took us around 30 minutes to get to the right spot on the coast. (Very cold and windy!) As luck would have it, it was low tide and I could actually get a good shot of the cottage from out on the sand that’s similar to what we saw on TV.

Since the cottage itself is inhabited and there was a car in front, I didn’t want to intrude to get more shots of the building, which would have been fun but I also didn’t want to be that obnoxious, trespassing TV tourist.

One unexpected surprise was that we passed the Boobrie II that was standing near the walking path along the house – the boat that Rose spots in the newspaper clipping that she thinks is tied to the cormorant logo that William drew.

Our next location stop was supposed to be Dundas Castle – a rather posh and somewhat secluded golf hotel west of Edinburgh where they filmed the scene with Carl, Akram, Finch and Finch’s lawyer (where Carl throws the golf club out of the window). We had to take a pass on that one because I didn’t realise that access would be granted by appointment or for guests only and I had somehow naively assumed that, since it’s a hotel, you could just go there and take a look. Oh well… On we went.

The next location was admittedly the most awkward to go to – the Leith Park house where Carl, Hardy and Anderson were shot. (Funnily enough, it’s nowhere near Leith.) The house they used is located in an area with more affordable council houses. I will admit it felt a little dodgy to be there and take photos so we didn’t spend much time in that particular location.

It took us a few tries to even figure out which building they might have used since they dressed up the houses and fences for the TV scenes and the more striking visual markers in the screenshots weren’t there anymore. Ultimately, I’m not even sure if I photographed the right house after all, since some details don’t match up, but it was the closest we found without canvassing the area.

If you look closely, you’ll see that these red slats around the houses and the red fences don’t actually exist in reality. They also obscured some of the street names when they were filming, as I’ve been told.

Next, we stopped at Mortonhall Crematorium that they used as a location for the scenes with Fergus Dunbar in the church. What complicated it for us was that the main chapel is in frequent use for back-to-back funeral services. We arrived in the middle of one, so there was a hearse front of the entrance and a funeral congregation in the church while other people were already milling about, waiting for the next funeral to start.

We had to wait a good while to even get a decent shot of the outside of the church without disturbing the parties of mourners. This also prevented us from seeing the inside of the church, which was a shame but couldn’t be helped, plus the chapel is probably a lot nicer to see on a sunny day with sunlight shining through the coloured windows rather than the gloomy, drizzly day we had to contend with.

Our next stop was Vogrie House, the building they transformed into Egley House – the psychiatric facility where William Lingard was being held. Vogrie House is in the heart of Vogrie Country Park, which is well worth a visit even without the added bonus of a Dept. Q filming location.

Not only is the outside immediately recognisable if you’ve seen the series, they also filmed a lot of, if not all of the interior Egley House scenes in this building. I’m not sure how accurate this information is, but the lady in the café told me that the production crew remodelled some rooms on the ground and first floor for about two months, completely redecorating the rooms with new wallpaper and even helped restore rooms on the first floor that previously weren’t in a very good state. Filming the actual Egley House scenes took about two weeks and afterwards they took down the wallpapers and other modifications again.

We only looked at some of the rooms on the ground floor, namely the soft play room next to the café (Dr. Wallace’s office) and the entrance hall. It’s amazing how television messes with your size perception, because the soft play room really wasn’t as huge and spacious in person as it appears on TV. Definitely an a-ha moment.

Our tour then took us out to the coast, to North Berwick, which is about a 45-minute drive east of Edinburgh. This wasn’t so much a filming location as more a place I had used in one of my Dept. Q fan fictions and self-indulgently wanted to see in person (in addition to it seeming like a really nice place on the coast to visit). The day we picked certainly wasn’t ideal since it was pouring down rain when we got there and it was windy as fuck. Yet, that made for interesting stormy waves that were crashing into the shore that we watched for a while before we fled back into the dry and warm car in our now wet clothes.

We had two more stops to go – one being the house they used as the location for Merritt and William’s home, conveniently located just ten minutes from North Berwick. I’m pretty sure it’s not currently in use but it was behind a closed gate, so I only grabbed a few quick pictures of the entrance in approaching dusk.

Our last stop was the Volunteer Arms pub (a.k.a. Staggs) in Musselburgh, used for two separate scenes on the series. One was the pub meeting where Carl and Akram speak to Liam Taylor and Stephen Burns, the other was the pub meeting with journalist Dennis Piper. Even though we also went inside, I only photographed the outside since this was a Friday night and the pub was teeming with people so that we could barely even make our way through the crowd. Neither of us felt like we wanted to stay there and we were also a bit pressed for time with the rental car, so we took a quick look and left again. Yet very cool to see and definitely recognisable where they filmed these scenes.

And that concluded our locations tour outside of the city, with those in the city centre coming up on Day 4.

Day 3 – Dept. Q Locations – Props Talk and Portobello Beach

This was my actual birthday, and what a special day it was! We started it off by having breakfast with Maura from the props department who had graciously agreed to meet with me over coffee in a lovely little café overlooking the Water of Leith.

For nearly three hours, we mutually geeked out over all kinds of things, including tennis balls made out of oranges, plastic hammers and pliers, film sets and lack of a bathroom, location shoots, and paranoia about flaking paint or holes in ceilings. I had a fabulous time and it couldn’t have been a more perfect start of the day! Maura also wore her Dept. Q t-shirt that had been given to the crew, which looked fabulous!

Our only other stop that day was a visit to Portobello Beach where Liam Taylor’s polar bear routine scene was filmed. We found the exact spot, took a few photos and then fled to a café on the promenade to warm up with a hot toddy and sweet snack.

Somewhat off-topic, but something I had wanted to try for a very long time was the odd but typically Scottish culinary experience of a deep-fried Mars bar. Yes, you heard correctly. The caramelly chocolate bar dunked in batter and then deep-fried. It sounds a little disgusting, right? And it is – in an instantly-clogging-up-your-arteries kind of way. Certainly not something I’d want to eat on a regular basis but definitely an experience. (Took us a while to even find a chippie that offered these.)

Day 4 – Dept. Q Locations – City Centre

Sunday was our big day in terms of locations in the city and within walking distance from the city centre. I had mapped out a roughly 2-hour walking tour that took us past a number of locations on this day that probably and thankfully had the least rain during our stay. (Woefully, we had zero hours of actual sunshine – Carl’s reason to hate Scotland so much.)

We started our tour at the City Chambers – the location that was used for the exterior of the courthouse. They shot several scenes here that were featured in different episodes, including Carl’s iconic bench slouch while he was waiting for Burns to exit the building. Fun fact, I probably waited nearly 15 minutes for the Spanish language tour guide to finish his very wordy recital and for the large group of people to clear out of the yard to finally grab a decent photo of the statue and the arches.

Speaking of tourists… They are an overall theme for all the locations that are near the city centre or that are actual tourist attractions. Like, seriously. There are tourists everywhere. There is no way they did not close off these locations during filming or had people shooing tourists away. If you expect that these places look as deserted as they do on TV, that’s an illusion.

Next up was Greyfriars Bobby – the statue of the dog that already had its nose replaced twice but that Akram has to touch anyway. Again, tons of tourists, selfie-sticks and guided tours in all sorts of languages. The scaffolding in the background also wasn’t quite as picturesque as what you see on screen. TV magic was employed here, because Carl and Akram are supposed to be on the way to the pub to meet with Burns, when the pub where that scene was filmed is seven miles away.

Then it was time for a nice little break at the café they used for the scene where Carl crashes Rachel’s date. The café looks just about the same as on TV – deep teal walls and all – except the tables and chairs were arranged differently and some of the wall decoration was put up by the TV production.

The café definitely had kind of a student hangout vibe and I’m not sure it’s a place Rachel would have necessarily chosen as a venue for her blind date but it was definitely cute and cosy and the coffee was good. This location also appeared larger on TV than in real life.

The next stop was another café – the one that they repurposed as the ice cream parlour for the scene where Jasper gets ambushed by creepy Fritz whom Carl subsequently beats up in the street. The café had changed owners and name since the scene was filmed there and so the inside looked different than what we see on TV. We didn’t actually go inside since it was pretty packed and we’d just had a coffee break.

Then it was time for one of the more iconic locations: the police station. Located at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, it certainly has its charm, although the building itself is not quite that charming. You might also notice that the building you see on TV was digitally altered to add a storey at the top that isn’t there in real life.

The next location had us go on a bit of a wild goose chase – the cemetery of The Parish Church of St. Cuthbert. They filmed a scene here where Merritt talks to Sam/Lyle as they are sitting on a wooden bench that overlooks part of the cemetery. Took us a while to find the exact spot since there weren’t that many landmarks to guide us and there is no bench in that spot in real life. You can thank my friend Freddie for her eagle eyes that we managed to figure out where the exact filming location of the bench scene was.

On we went, this time to Dr. Sonnenberg’s office. Not much to say about this location – it’s just a house not very far from Princes Street with perhaps the most striking being St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in the background. The interior scenes were all shot on set in the studio.

We made a little detour away from actual Dept. Q locations to stop by Dean Village – another spot with picturesque views that is popular with tourists. Can’t say we were incredibly impressed, particularly since photos on social media that tried to sell this place were definitely heavily photoshopped.

Our very last Dept. Q location to visit was the house that Rachel’s flat was supposed to be in. I’ve been told conflicting information whether the interior was this particular house or a set, but my feeling is that it was shot on location since it all seems to fit. (This property was on the market not too long ago and you can see the inside of the house in the listing – the living room looked pretty much exactly like on TV but with different wall paint.)

You can’t really see much of the exterior in the scenes on TV – it’s mostly just Carl ringing the doorbell and then standing by the door to wait for Rachel. The doorbells you see on the telly are those of this particular house with the names changed.

Funnily enough, this house is in one of the most expensive areas of Edinburgh, and seeing some of the surrounding tenements and houses, I now understand why. If I had to guess, Rachel must either be loaded, have massive debt, or have inherited the property. I should probably not ask how she could afford it if she lived there in her 20’s with her student mates…

Our city locations tour concluded with a non-Dept. Q related place – Circus Lane. This was recommended as one of the most picturesque streets of Edinburgh, which again made it prime real estate for tourists. It was certainly kinda cute, but I’m probably a little spoiled by having seen many similarly quaint and cosy alleys in other European cities, so I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed.

We made our way back to our hotel before we celebrated Burns Night in style with a yummy haggis and cranachan dinner at a restaurant in the city that was recommended by props magician Maura. What a wonderful last night in Edinburgh before, sadly, we had to make our way back home the next day.

This whole trip was kind of a dream come true for me and the most perfect way to celebrate my 50^th birthday in an extra special way. It’s still super surreal to see all these locations in real life, although that also tends to mess with my brain and my ability to suspend disbelief.

I’m more than curious what locations they will pick for season 2 that we haven’t seen yet, and I’m hoping it will warrant another trip to Edinburgh for more location discovery in 2027. I can’t wait!