As the hit Apple TV+ series returns, Bad Sisters’ Sharon Horgan tells us why, when it came to choosing filming locations, it had to be Dublin—and how to best see the area for yourself
Think of a series that’s impossible to separate from its filming location, and Sharon Horgan’s hit Bad Sisters would rank right up there. “It’s a love letter to family foremost, then it’s a love letter to Ireland,” says Horgan of the Apple TV+ dark comedy she created, wrote and stars in, and which returns for a second season on November 13. Like the first season, it was filmed on locations across Dublin and beyond. Anyone who watched will have found themselves dreaming of an Irish trip, and Horgan is full of advice on what to see and do.
“Get walking—it really is the best place in the world for that,” she begins. “Get in the water and swim. Get yourself some seafood. Go have a pint of Guinness and even if you don’t drink, go to the pub—they’re such warm, interesting places. Just keep it simple. Keep your day wide open so you can discover stuff along the way.”
We’re here to talk about all the beautiful locations where Bad Sisters is filmed—and Horgan, who grew up on a turkey farm in County Meath, an hour north of Dublin, is so enthusiastic about her home country that she’s previously been hired to promote it. “I actually fronted the Irish tourism board’s last ad campaign,” she laughs. “I’m very proud of that.”
It’s surprising she could even fit it in: Horgan is one of TV’s most in-demand creators, writing, producing and often also starring in acclaimed comedy dramas that deftly capture the different phases of modern womanhood. Catastrophe, in which she acted opposite Rob Delaney, dissected marriage; while Motherland did the same for the stress of being a working mom. She was also behind Divorce, the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle about… well, you can guess.
Her latest hit, the Emmy award-nominated Bad Sisters, focuses on another universal theme: sibling relationships, in all their funny, messy glory. Its plot, however, is somewhat less universal, as the close-knit Garvey sisters—played by Horgan, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, Anne-Marie Duff and Eve Hewson—try, and repeatedly fail, to murder the abusive husband of one of the five. Season two picks up two years later, when all is well… or so it seems.
Bad Sisters is mainly filmed in the coastal suburbs and towns around Dublin, the bits you only see when you venture beyond the bright lights. “That’s the Ireland of my youth, the areas of County Dublin outside the city that I was taken to as a child, on day trips.”
An adaptation of a Belgian TV series called Clan, it could have been set in either the U.K. or Ireland—Apple TV+ gave Horgan the choice. But the deal was sealed when she went on a recce to swimming spot the Forty Foot, on the southern tip of Dublin Bay, which viewers will recognize as a key hangout for the Garvey sisters. “As soon as I saw all these women there swimming and having conversations I thought, ‘That’s the perfect place for the sisters to plot murders.’ You’re right out in the elements and it feels very safe but also very ominous. Everywhere in the area I saw after that just felt right for the show,” she says.
Horgan, who lives in east London with her two daughters, aged 16 and 20, recognizes the “privilege of having a job that takes you to extraordinary places.” She’s recently been filming in the Dolomites in Italy. “I made myself go out and just take it all in—monasteries, restaurants, galleries,” she says. “I used to sit in my hotel rooms and feel a bit lonely and resent time away from family. But now I appreciate work travel far more.”
As for traveling for pleasure, vacations are more ambitious these days: “When the children are little, all you want to do is find somewhere with a crèche where you can lie down. Now my daughters and I go on adventures together, like to Bangkok, to see a wilder side of the world. I love to walk, swim, climb, run, be active. That gives me a buzz way more now than lying around with a piña colada.”
Since becoming a single-parent family, Horgan has had to take control of vacation planning. It’s not been easy. “It took me a long time to trust myself to organize things because I was in a marriage where someone did all of that. So when I first started venturing out on my own, I was nervous about getting it right and choosing the right places.” As a result, she tends to draw up travel itineraries that don’t allow much room for spontaneity. “It’s a bit of a shame because sometimes it’s the places that you discovered by accident that can be most magical,” she says. “So, if you do visit Dublin, just follow your nose!”
A cultural guide to Dublin
“It’s very exposed, but there’s an older population who’ve been swimming here for years and they do not even flinch,” says Horgan of the famous sea-swimming spot. “There are steps down into the water, and a bar to hold onto, which is good because the water can knock you off your feet.”
“Like the Garvey sisters, I am one of five and we had a ritual for many years of all staying at The Shelbourne hotel just before Christmas, before we headed to our parents’ place. I’d get an interconnecting room with my sister, as she had a youngster the same age as mine, we’d get the babysitters in and then we’d have a sibling Christmas dinner, be raucous and go wild. Also, the hotel breakfast buffet there is beyond—it’s like Willy Wonka for eggs.”
“Howth is where my character Eva lives, in the family home on a clifftop,” says Horgan. While the actual house that acted as Bad Sisters‘ filming location has since been demolished and the site redeveloped, you can still visit the stunning surrounding area. “Well-known Dublin people live in Howth because it has incredible houses and the views are extraordinary. I didn’t know the area beforehand, but I was blown away by it. The scenery there is wildly beautiful—go there for walks along the beach or to swim in the sea. In season two, you’ll see Eva running along the clifftops with her new menopause coach.”
“This is another spot for gorgeous coastline. My dad used to take me here—he’d deliver turkeys to the Malahide Grand Hotel. Afterwards we’d play tennis and get an ice cream. Eve Hewson’s character Becka is filmed walking along the street here—it’s lit up and looks beautiful. The town has a little strip [New Street, near the marina] with coffee shops and a famous bar called Gibney’s.”
“When I was an art student in Dublin, I worked in a café next door to one of the most beautiful pubs in Dublin, Kehoes. In those days I’d drink an old man ale called Smithwick’s. My baby brother Mark had his wedding reception there recently. I love its snugs—Irish bars are known for snugs and they can fit two or three people. The bar men there are really professional—they can have 25 pints of Guinness on the go at once. The thing that makes me most happy in Dublin is sitting in a bar and seeing people take out their instruments for an impromptu music session. It’s a huge part of the culture, so find bars that have live music.”
Off-the-tourist-trail Dublin pub tour
“In the Bad Sisters writers’ room, we’d have photos up on the wall of places I’d visited as a child, with my family, and it felt like it was really adding something to the series. Skerries [a coastal town to the north of Dublin] is somewhere else my dad used to drive us to when we were kids. There are so many great pubs along the harbor—find one that does a seafood chowder. There are seals there too, always honking their heads off!”
Season two of Bad Sisters is now streaming on Apple TV+
Bad Sisters captures the beauty of Dublin’s coastal towns better than any other series—so why not take a tour of its filming locations, and trace Sharon Horgan’s childhood trips that inspired its look and feel? Here’s where to stay along the way.
Kerry Potter is an editor and writer specializing in travel, health, culture, fashion and lifestyle. A former editor on Elle and ES Magazine, she also advises brands on content strategy, curates and hosts literary events, and is an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University’s journalism department. She is the co-author of a book about the future of sport and fitness, All To Play For.
