The Hobbiton Movie Set"Home"
Hobbiton Movie Set Tours. Retrieved 24 January 2015 is a significant location used for ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogy, serving as a stand-in for the town of Hobbiton in

the Shire The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...

in both trilogies. It is situated on a family-run farm about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of

Hinuera Hinuera is a settlement in the Waikato Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located along State Highway 29, approximately halfway between the cities of Hamilton and Tauranga. It also contains the Hinuera cliffs along State Highway 29. ...

and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of

Matamata Matamata () is a town in Waikato, New Zealand. It is located near the base of the Kaimai Ranges, and is a thriving farming area known for Thoroughbred horse breeding and training pursuits. It is part of the Matamata-Piako District, which take ...

, in

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and is now a

Tolkien tourism Tolkien tourism consists of media pilgrimages by fans of Tolkien's fiction and Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy to sites related to the book and films. In Jackson's New Zealand, it is credited as having raised annual ...

destination, offering a guided tour of the set.

Pre-film set history

The geology of the area is that of the Hinuera Formation, a group of alluvial silts, sands and gravels laid down in the Last Glacial Period.Brodie (2004) p. 33 Originally largely marshland, it was transformed in the 19th century by a large-scale drainage scheme and is now fertile agricultural land and a major

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

breeding area.Brodie (2004) p. 32 The Alexander family moved to the property of rolling grassland where the set is located in 1978. Since then it has been a livestock farm with 13,000 sheep and 300 Angus beef cattle. The main sources of income from farming are mutton, wool and beef."About Us"
. Hobbiton Movie Set Tours. Retrieved 24 January 2015

''The Lord of the Rings''

When director

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

began to look for suitable locations for ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series,Brodie (2004) Foreword he first saw the Alexander Farm during an aerial search in 1998''New Zealand: Home of Middle-earth''. (19 Mar 2013). Go New Zealand. (Available on YouTube). and concluded that the area was "like a slice of ancient England". Set Decorator Alan Lee commented that the location's hills "looked as though Hobbits had already begun excavations".Brodie (2004) p. 19 Part of the site has a lake with a long arm that could double as a river. Bag End

After suitable negotiations with the owners, work commenced in transforming part of the farm into sets for

Hobbiton The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...

and other parts of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

Shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

in March 1999. The

New Zealand Army The New Zealand Army (, ) is the principal Army, land warfare force of New Zealand, a component of the New Zealand Defence Force alongside the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Formed in 1845, as the New Zealand Mil ...

brought in heavy equipment to make of road into the site from the nearest local road and initial ground works. Further work included building the facades for 37 hobbit holes and associated gardens and hedges, a mill and double arch bridge, and erecting a oak above

Bag End Bag End is the underground dwelling of the Hobbits Bilbo Baggins, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From there, both Bilbo and Frodo set out on their adventures, and bot ...

that was cut down near Matamata and recreated on site, complete with artificial leaves.

Thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

on the pub and mill roofs was made from rushes growing on the farm. Generators were installed and water and sewage also had to be considered. Catering was made available for up to 400 cast, crew and visitors per day. Jackson wrote: "I knew Hobbiton needed to be warm, comfortable and feel lived in. By letting the weeds grow through the cracks and establishing hedges and little gardens a year before filming, we ended up with an incredibly real place, not just a film set". Lee commented that "it was satisfying to see that it had taken on something of the look of the Devonshire countryside I'd lived in for the past twenty-five years".

Filming ''The Hobbit''

The original set was not built to last, the hobbit hole facades having been constructed from untreated timber, ply and

polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It i ...

and partially torn down after filming. In 2010, the set was rebuilt in a more permanent fashion for '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'', filming for which began in 2011.

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cu ...

reprised his role as Gandalf the Grey and was joined on the Hobbiton location by

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won two Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most ...

, who remarked that the site "just looked like a place where people lived and where people worked".

Visitor centre

Guided tours of the movie set site commenced in 2002 and continue to be provided daily. The two-hour excursion is very popular, and advance bookings are recommended.
Hobbiton™ Movie Set Tours. Retrieved 7 May 2025 Highlights of the tour include The Shire#Bagshot Row, Bagshot Row, the Party Tree, and Bilbo's

home. There are now 44 hobbit holes on view although it is only possible to enter a few of them, some of which have small, unfinished, earth-walled interiors and some are fully furnished hobbit hole interiors opened as of the 1st of December 2024 . (The interior of Bag End was shot in a studio in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

). The hobbit holes on site have been designed and built to one of three different scales. In addition to the smallest ones built to the correct size (hobbits are smaller than humans), some are built to a larger scale to make the hobbit actors appear smaller, and some have been constructed in a "dwarf" scale for scenes containing dwarves. Apart from a few exceptions, the colour of the front door indicates the scale, for example hobbit holes with a blue door are built to the correct scale for humans. Refreshments are available at "The Shires Rest Cafe" prior to or after tours. Breakfast and indeed "Second Breakfast" is served. In 2012 the "Green Dragon" inn (a replica of the Green Dragon that featured in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and Hobbit trilogies) was opened on the set. There is now also a store selling merchandise and souvenirs adjacent to the cafe and evening events commenced in 2014. The tours have generally received good reviews. In 2013 the set welcomed its 500,000th guest. In December 2023 new holes were opened to the public, which took nine months to complete. File:Baggins residence 'Bag End' with party sign.jpg,

said of the set, "It felt as if you could open the circular green door of Bag End and find Bilbo Baggins inside". File:Hobbit holes reflected in water.jpg,

Hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...

holes overlooking the lake on the set File:Hobbiton mill and double-arched bridge.jpg, Hobbiton mill and double-arched bridge File:Inside The Green Dragon inn.jpg, Interior of the Green Dragon inn

References

Bibliography

* Ian Brodie (2004) ''The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook''. (Extended Edition). HarperCollins. Auckland. * Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Sarah Bennett, Peter Dragicevich and Errol Hunt (2008) ''Lonely Planet New Zealand''.

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History 20th century Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen Wheeler, Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 19 ...

. Melbourne. {{Matamata-Piako District Matamata The Hobbit (film series) The Lord of the Rings (film series) Tourist attractions in Hamilton, New Zealand Tourist attractions in Waikato Shire (Middle-earth)