A stroll through the Shire

I could be a Hobbit

I couldn't resist visiting the Hobbiton movie set. I'm not so much a fan of J.R.R.Tolkien as I'm a fan of movie sets. But I did read The Lord of the Rings and saw all three movies of the trilogy so the behind the scenes movie set tour was very exciting.

The movie set with all the Hobbit dwellings is well preserved partly so that tourists can visit and partly because they have to finish filming the remaining two parts of the Hobbit trilogy. It can only be visited with a tour guide and nothing may be touched, except the one Hobbit dwelling where we were allowed to take photos.

The location of the set was chosen because it was naturally suited for Hobbit dwellings. Only the oak tree above Bilbo and Frodo's house is not real. Or at least it used to be a real tree that they cut down at a different location and assembled again in the movie set. Artificial leaves had to be applied and spray painted a suitable color that filmed well.

Bilbo and Frodo's house with the fake oak tree

Everything on the movie set is a prop, including garden plants and flowers and laundry that hangs from the lines. A gardener is employed full time to take care of the plants and a prop person was in charge of hanging the laundry during filming.

Everything is a prop, including the laundry

For the party scene in The Lord of the Rings movie the actors were allowed to drink real beer because the director wanted the scene to be authentic. However, the beer was specially brewed for the filming in order to have a lower alcohol content. They still brew beers and allow tourists to taste them at the Green Dragon Inn. One of those beers that I tried is the Girdley Fine Grain Amber Ale.

Beer tasting at the Green Dragon