Highlands Darkness
ITV's New Crime Drama 'The Dark' Premieres, Set in Tense Scottish Highlands
Key Points
Rest and Be Thankful, a picturesque high mountain pass on the A83 in Argyll and Bute, was used as the site of the first body found in The Dark.
Several scenes were filmed across greater Glasgow's countryside to double as the remote Scottish Highlands, underscoring the show's isolation on screen.
Screenwriter Matt Hartley said the Highlands’ space and atmosphere were intrinsic to the production, including a line about burying bodies rather than displaying them to set the mood.
Emun Elliott commented that rural Scotland can be romanticised, but the landscape helped shape the drama’s mood toward a darker, unsettling tone.
ITV's new six-part crime drama The Dark premieres tonight at 9pm on ITV1, thrusting viewers into the rugged Scottish Highlands as Detective Monica Kennedy hunts a serial killer preying on a remote rural community. TV Guide reports the series is adapted from GR Halliday's 2020 debut novel From the Shadows, with Belfast-born actress Laura Donnelly in the lead role.
The show leans hard on Scotland's landscape to fuel its tension. Filming spanned Greenock, Inverclyde, Glasgow and the surrounding countryside, with the iconic mountain pass Rest and Be Thankful — on the A83 in Argyll and Bute — serving as the site of the first body discovered onscreen, according to Wales Online.
Laura Donnelly Leads a Star-Studded Cast
Laura Donnelly, best known for Outlander, plays DI Monica Kennedy — a detective whose own troubled past complicates her pursuit of a killer. High on Films notes the cast also includes Mark Rowley of The Last Kingdom, Tunji Kasim of The Gold, Helen Baxendale of Cold Feet, and Scottish actor Emun Elliott.
Kennedy is drawn into the case after a young man's naked body is found in pristine wilderness. The killer targets a tight-knit community, and paranoia spreads fast. TV Guide describes the drama as a tense cat-and-mouse thriller built on secrets and a hidden predator lurking among ordinary people.
Scotland's Landscape Does the Heavy Lifting
The production team chose locations across greater Glasgow's countryside to stand in for the remote Highlands. TV Guide highlights the use of James Watt College's Finnart Street campus and Annexe Park in Greenock, alongside a disused railway station, to build the show's moody, isolated feel.
Screenwriter Matt Hartley said the Highlands' space and atmosphere were central to the story. He included a line about characters burying bodies rather than displaying them — a detail meant to set the dark tone from the start. Emun Elliott added that rural Scotland is often romanticised, but the landscape here pushes the drama toward something far more unsettling.
'Ridiculously Dark' Tone Sets The Dark Apart
Head Topics reports that some of the script's most disturbing stage directions — including a scene of a crow pecking — were cut from the final edit. The production still earned its reputation for a bleak, unnerving atmosphere that goes beyond standard crime drama fare.
The show's producers leaned into the isolation that Scotland's landscape provides. Multiple outlets note the series builds its tension around paranoia, hidden secrets and the fear that a predator could be anyone in a small community. The six-episode run gives the story room to breathe and escalate slowly.
Rest and Be Thankful Sets the Scene from Episode One
The A83 mountain pass known as Rest and Be Thankful is one of Scotland's most dramatic road stretches. The production used it as the spot where Monica Kennedy finds the first victim. Wales Online calls it an 'iconic' location that immediately signals the show's remote, exposed world.
The choice of real Scottish locations — rather than studio sets — gives The Dark a grounded look. The rugged terrain, open skies and winding roads all reinforce the sense of isolation that the story depends on. ITV is betting Scotland's scenery is as much a character as anyone in the cast.
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