The Traitors: New Blood Filming Locations

The Traitors: New Blood may have replaced the celebrities with 22 ordinary Americans, but NBC has wisely left one of the franchise’s most important “characters” untouched. Alan Cumming is once again presiding over the game from a sprawling Scottish estate where candlelit rooms, stone corridors and misty Highland scenery make every breakfast conversation and banishment feel slightly more sinister than it otherwise would. The location has become so closely associated with the American and British versions of The Traitors that changing it would almost amount to changing the format itself. New Blood therefore returns to the same Scottish castle that has defined the franchise from the beginning, while the surrounding Highlands continue to give the competition room for its elaborate outdoor missions.

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Where was The Traitors: New Blood filmed?

The Traitors: New Blood was filmed primarily at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, the established home of the U.S. version of The Traitors. NBCUniversal specifically confirmed Ardross Castle as the destination for the 22 civilian contestants, who were selected from more than 80,000 applicants for the network edition. The castle sits in Ross-shire, north of Inverness, and has also been used by the British version of the format.

The production did not need to reinvent its visual language simply because New Blood introduces a different type of contestant. Ardross already provides the secluded atmosphere the game needs, with the Faithfuls and Traitors spending their days inside a location that feels deliberately separated from ordinary life. Screen Highland has said that the castle and the wider Highland region have been used by both the U.K. and U.S. productions since their launches, with the estate offering enough privacy and variety for a production of this size.

Ardross Castle is the real castle seen in the series

Ardross Castle is not a studio facade created specifically for The Traitors. It is a genuine 19th-century Scottish Baronial-style property surrounded by formal gardens and more than 100 acres of parkland beside the River Alness. The estate’s official website confirms that its interiors, exteriors, river, gardens and surrounding landscape are all available for film and television production.

That scale is part of what makes Ardross work so well on television. The building can provide intimate rooms for whispered strategy while its grounds are large enough to accommodate vehicles, production facilities and even helicopters. The castle’s stable block can also support production operations, allowing much of the technical side of the series to remain close to the action without becoming part of what viewers see on screen.

Why did The Traitors choose Ardross Castle?

Ardross Castle was not simply the first Scottish estate the producers found. The production reportedly considered more than 40 castles before choosing it, with executive producer Mike Cotton explaining that they wanted a location combining grandeur with something darker and more theatrical. Just as importantly, they required a sufficiently large hall to accommodate the Round Table, which has since become one of the franchise’s defining sets.

The isolation also works in the show’s favor. Cotton has said that placing players somewhere that feels removed from normal life helps them become more deeply immersed in the game, while executive producer Rosie Franks has described the castle as fundamental to The Traitors’ identity. New Blood changes the social experiment by introducing contestants without established television personas, but placing them in the same imposing environment preserves the heightened reality that has always made the format work.

Are the Round Table and castle rooms real interiors?

Many of the spaces seen during The Traitors are genuine rooms inside Ardross Castle, although they have been dressed and technically adapted for filming. Producers have revealed that roughly 50 cameras are positioned around the castle, with some hidden behind wood paneling and architectural features so that players can move through the rooms without constantly facing obvious television equipment. Even the Round Table itself contains cameras designed to capture reactions during the banishment ceremonies.

Viewers are not seeing the entire property, however. Producers primarily use much of the castle’s downstairs area, while other sections remain outside the contestants’ permitted filming space. Some previously unused corners have gradually been incorporated into the show, including an underground area discovered by the production after filming had already been taking place at Ardross for a season.

The Scottish Highlands provide more than the castle

Although Ardross is the central location, the wider Highland landscape is equally important to the look of the franchise. The estate itself contains woodland, gardens and access to the River Alness, allowing certain outdoor material to be filmed without traveling far from the main production base. Previous U.S. and U.K. seasons have also ventured into other Highland locations for missions, including areas around Loch Glass.

It is important not to automatically assign every location used by earlier seasons to New Blood, particularly while the new season is still unfolding. Individual challenge sites are often revealed only when their episodes air, and the production uses different Highland locations depending on the design of a particular mission. What can already be confirmed is that New Blood remains firmly rooted in the same Scottish region rather than moving the civilian edition to a new country or purpose-built reality set.

Do The Traitors: New Blood contestants sleep at Ardross Castle?

The castle functions as the contestants’ on-screen home, but players on The Traitors have historically not actually slept inside Ardross Castle. Alan Cumming previously revealed that U.S. contestants were taken to accommodation near Inverness Airport at night, while he stayed separately nearby. Producers have since become much less specific about the overnight arrangements because keeping contestants isolated from one another is essential to protecting the identities of the Traitors.

That behind-the-scenes separation explains why Ardross can appear to function like an all-inclusive residence even though it is primarily the game environment. The estate itself confirms that it is not a hotel and does not rent individual rooms to visitors. It is instead operated as an exclusive-use venue for private events, weddings and productions, meaning fans cannot simply book the bedroom of their favorite Faithful for a weekend in Scotland.

Can you visit Ardross Castle?

Ardross Castle is privately owned and is not operated as a conventional tourist attraction with regular public tours. The McTaggart family has owned the estate since 1983 and undertook significant restoration work before it became internationally recognizable through The Traitors. It can be hired for certain private events and productions, but casual visitors should not expect the same access available at a public heritage property.

New Blood may be presenting a completely new group of players, but visually it remains unmistakably part of The Traitors. Ardross Castle still supplies the stone walls, expansive rooms and Highland isolation that make Cumming’s theatrical hosting style feel perfectly at home, while the surrounding Scottish landscape gives the producers space to keep escalating the missions. For a franchise built around making ordinary conversations feel dangerous, returning its civilian contestants to an extraordinary location is one tradition that makes sense to keep.