Where was All Creatures Great and Small filmed? All filming locations explored

All Creatures Great and Small has returned to TV screens for its fifth season on January 12, 2025. The show brings back audiences to the fictional picturesque village of Darrowby. This season, the Skeldale House will be busier and fuller than ever, with James returning from RAF Abingdon and with baby Jimmy's arrival.

Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, and Rachel Shenton return for season 5 of the TV adaptation of the James Herriot books of the same name. The series features the heartwarming and humorous adventures of Ralph's character, a country vet who lives and works in Yorkshire Dales, specifically in the village of Darrowby.

While Darrowby is entirely fictional, the show captured the authenticity of the Dales with its strategic filming locations. All Creatures Great and Small was filmed all over Yorkshire, England, more specifically in one of its designated national parks, the Yorkshire Dales.

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All Creatures Great and Small was filmed all over Yorkshire Dales in England

The Yorkshire Dales features a series of valleys, aka dales. It is also home to stretches of unspoiled landscape, castles, dry stone walls, abbeys, and quaint little villages in northern England. The location's scenery served as the backdrop of All Creatures Great and Small.

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Grassington served as the fictional village of Darrowby

The village of Darrowby plays a central role in the series as it is where All Creatures Great and Small is set. The original BBC adaptation of the James Herriot books picked the village of Askrigg in north Yorkshire as its filming location. However, the Channel 5 reboot, which is now streaming on PBS, was filmed in Grassington in southern Dales, as per Filmed in Yorkshire.

In a feature from PBS, production designer Jacqueline Smith explained why Grassington was chosen as the setting for the fictional Darrowby village. She said:

"Grassington stands in for Darrowby. It's in the heart of the Dales, so it formed a good base to then work out from and find all our lovely roads where we do our drone work and things. It's a town that looks like it did 200 years ago."

Some of the key locations in the series were filmed in Grassington, including the exterior of Skeldale House.

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The Devonshire in Grassington and a pub in Hardraw stand in as the fictional The Drover's Arms pub

The Drover's Arms pub in All Creatures Great and Small required two separate locations for filming, but both are still within the Yorkshire Dales. Grassington's family-run pub and hotel, The Devonshire Arms, served as the exterior of the fictional The Drover's Arms pub.

Meanwhile, its interior was filmed in another pub called The Green Dragon, located in Hardraw, a hamlet known for its stone-built houses in the northern Dales. Per PBS, Smith described The Green Dragon set as "perfect" for filming the interior of the pub with its "original flagstone floors, the original fireplace, and the original oak paneling on the walls."

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The Stripey Badger bookshop served as the fictional G F Endleby Grocers

The Stripey Badger, a local bookshop located on Grassiongton's main square, was the stand-in set for the show's G F Endleby Grocers. According to Filmed in Yorkshire, Linda from The Stripey Badger revealed that their books had to be replaced with fruit and vegetables during filming. The cafe attached to the bookshop was turned into a Green Room for the actors.

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Other Yorkshire Dales filming spots for the series

All Creatures Great and Small was filmed in many other locations in Yorkshire Dales, taking advantage of its boundless landscape and varying sceneries. For instance, the stone bridge in the series was filmed at the Baren Bridge, which is part of the Bolton Abbey Estate in the eastern part of the Dales.

The show was also shot in Malham Lings, known for its vast limestone scenery and located in a village in north Yorkshire. It was where the scene when James first arrived in the Dales was shot. A scene where Helen caught James Herriot swimming in a waterfall pool was also shot in Janet's Foss waterfall, which is located in Malham village.

Another notable filming location in All Creatures Great and Small includes the Broughton Hall estate in Skipton in North Yorkshire for Mrs. Humphrey's home. Yorkshire's historic and industrial sites like the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Ripon Racecourse, Bolton Abbey, Newby Hall, Ripley Castle, and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway also made it into the show.

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Catch the fifth season of All Creatures Great and Small streaming on MASTERPIECE on PBS, with new episodes coming weekly on Sunday evening.