We know what you’re thinking: what’s remotely surprising about filming a show set in Edinburgh in Edinburgh? Except, it’s so rarely done as to make Netflix’s new crime thriller Dept. Q a genuine standout. Most shows and films from Trainspotting to Rebus have used Glasgow as a stand in for the capital.
The handiwork of The Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank (Logan, Out of Sight), Dept Q showcases the Scottish capital in all its Georgian elegance and urban grittiness – as well as taking a tour of the countryside outside the city and further flung corners of the country. ‘We filmed in something like 13 of the city’s 17 council wards,’ says supervising location manager Hugh Gourlay. ‘There’s such a variance in the architecture in Edinburgh: you’ve got the New Town, the medieval parts, the narrow closes, the wide streets, and the high-rise flats of parts of the city that that are not often seen.’
The location manager takes us on a tour of Dept Q.’s Edinburgh.
What is Dept. Q about?
Adapted from the Nordic noir books of Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen and transplanted from Denmark to Edinburgh, Dept. Q does for the police force what Slow Horses does for MI5. It takes its name from a small group of misfit cops under the leadership of cranky, traumatised detective Carl Morck (Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode) who are assigned to investigate cold cases in the city.
One of the dusty dossiers Morck finds on the pile is the disappearance of ambitious Edinburgh criminal barrister Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie). With his team of waifs and strays, and some canny tips from his old partner DS Hardy (Jamie Sives), now recovering from a council estate shooting, he’s soon tracing Merritt’s footsteps and shaking loose some of the city’s darkest secrets.
Who stars in the show?
Alongside Goode and Pirrie as the detective and the missing woman he’s searching for, Dept. Q boasts a stellar cast of Scottish actors. Trainspotting’s Kelly Macdonald plays Dr Rachel Irving, the police therapist trying to help the adversarial Morck overcome his demons, while Mark Bonnar (Guilt) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) play authority figures with whom the troubled cop is soon butting heads.
Alexej Manvelov is Akram Salim, a Syrian cop forced to flee his homeland who joins Morck’s team and proves to be a sleuth with razor-sharp instincts. Leah Byrne plays Rose, a struggling cadet who gets the chance to show her skills on the team.
The opening sequence was filmed in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh
Dept. Q opens with a burst of violence as Morck and Hardy face an ambush in The Calders’ gritty housing estates in Wester Hailes. ‘It’s a less refined part of Edinburgh,’ says Gourlay. ‘We go from that – bang – and straight into the city’s Georgian legal world.’ The ambush, in a local flat, itself was filmed on a soundstage.
Edinburgh City Chambers were filmed on The Royal Mile
Filming in Edinburgh comes with challenges – cost, tourists, the Fringe Festival and Hogmanay – that have often made Glasgow a more practical stand-in. But Dept. Q bucked that trend by embracing the city – even its bustingly central thoroughfare, The Royal Mile. ‘We filmed outside the Supreme Court in Parliament Square,’ remembers Gourlay, ‘and outside the City Chambers, where Mark Bonnar exits the building. It had to be done at the weekend, which bring its own problems in terms of the crowds on The Royal Mile, but it worked out okay.’
The courtroom scenes were filmed at The Signet Library, Edinburgh
The courtroom itself, where Merritt Lingard prosecutes criminal cases and makes some powerful enemies, was filmed in The Signet Library, a wedding and party venue in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
The police station was filmed at FirstStage Studios, Leith
The police station and Department Q, Morck’s grimy HQ, were filmed on soundstages in Leith – as was another key location that we’ll avoid mentioning for spoiler reasons. (Suffice to say, it’s even more inhospitable than the dusty basement.) ‘Our designer is very talented,’ says Gourlay. ‘I loved the grittiness, the ’60s vibe and the brutalist architecture.’ Exteriors were filmed at a ’60s building below Edinburgh Castle. ‘It’s a CodeBase that they augmented digitally.’
Merritt’s house is in Dirleton in East Lothian
A few early glimpses of Merritt’s home reveal an edifice as foreboding as the lawyer herself. The location was an old military facility outside the city. ‘It’s an old World War II radar station that a farmer had renovated and then sold, and it had suffered flooding damage,’ says Gourlay. ‘We ended up painting it to give it a more austere flavour. It has that feeling of Merritt’s coldness.’
The ferry journey was filmed in Gills Bay, near John o’Groats
The mystery of Merritt’s disappearance hangs on a fateful ferry journey to an unspecified island with her neurodiverse brother. Dept Q shows both that journey and Morck and Salim’s investigation aboard the vessel. ‘The ferry [we used] runs from just near John o’Groats up to Orkney,’ says Gourlay. ‘We chartered the ferry for a couple of days in May 2024.’
Dr Irving’s office was filmed in New Town, Edinburgh
Kelly Macdonald’s therapist has some thorny meetings with Morck, with the cop eventually storming out of a session. The exterior shots were filmed on Melville Street in New Town. ‘You can see Karl crossing that wide street with St Mary's Cathedral in the background,’ says Gourlay. ‘The actual office was in the studio.’
The pub scenes were filmed in Staggs – aka The Volunteer Arms – in Musselburgh
Dept. Q features two key pub scenes: one at Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Bobby Bar, where Morck intercepts Bonnar’s senior lawyer Stephen Burns while he’s celebrating a successful case; and other, for a meeting between Morck and a lead. ‘We actually filmed both pubs in the same place,’ says Gourlay. ‘We found a pub in Musselburgh with an old, traditional front bar and a more modern back bar, so we were able to combine the two in one place.’
The Christian Centre was filmed at Mortonhall Crematorium
Looking for clues, Morck tracks down the now-retired detective who worked on the original Merritt Lingard investigation to a Christian centre in the city. The real location? Mortonhall Crematorium, a ’60s building designed by Scottish architect Basil Spence. ‘It was initially written as being on the Royal Mile but it wasn't practical,’ recalls Gourlay. ‘It's got fantastic stained glass windows and a really interesting look. It was such a unique location.’
Merritt’s hotel rendezvous was filmed at DoubleTree hotel, Queensferry Crossing
The investigation also leads to a hotel on the Firth of Forth. Here, Merritt had a rendezvous with a crime reporter who warned her that she’d made dangerous enemies. The hotel used by the show is the DoubleTree, a Hilton in Queensferry overlooking the Forth bridges.
Egley House care residence was shot at Vogrie House, Pathhead
Morck’s investigations lead to a care facility where Merritt’s brother was sent to live after her disappearance. The real venue is ‘an old mansion house that's now owned by Midlothian Council,’ says the location manager. ‘We made it look like a clinic, institutional but richer than it is. We filmed the hospital where DS Hardy is being treated there too.’
The climbing accident was filmed at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena
This world-class climbing centre just to the west of the city hosts a key death scene in the show. ‘It’s an old quarry that was converted into a climbing centre with a roof,’ explains Gourlay. ‘In the early versions of the script, it was meant to be a climbing centre in the Highlands, but we moved it closer to Edinburgh.’
When is Dept. Q streaming?
All nine episodes are streaming on Netflix now.
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