Where was Kate Bush’s iconic ‘Wuthering Heights’ video filmed?
Every summer, hundreds of people make their way to the Yorkshire moors wearing red dresses in tribute to Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, uniting for a group dance inspired by the choreography of her iconic 1978 music video.
Of course, the song was inspired by Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name, with the author using these exact moors as the setting for her unforgettable story of love, obsession, and death.
In the video, Bush takes on the vision of Cathy, the novel’s tragic subject, who dies when she is just a teenager. After forming an inseparable bond with Heathcliff, a foundling whom her father takes in off the streets of Liverpool, events turn violent and messy, with revenge, unfulfilled desires, and generational trauma all taking shape, wherein Heathcliff wants Cathy to haunt him when she’s gone, and in a scene near the start of the book, Mr Lockwood sees a vision of Cathy at the window, which inspired Bush’s line, “Let me in your window”.
So, in the video, we see the image of Bush fade in like a ghost against an outdoor scene inspired by the moors, her movements spectral and pleading, a fluid interpretation of the pain and tragedy of Cathy’s story, but this outcome was actually one of two videos made for the song, with the other, known as the official video, seeing Bush dance in a floaty white dress, similarly pretending to be Cathy. This time, though, the backdrop is dark with bright lines illuminating her surroundings, and extremely ‘70s in its haziness.
It’s the outdoor version that has captivated people most, though, and even Margot Robbie, star of the controversial Emerald Fennell film adaptation, recreated the dance while on location on the moors. So, while events are held across the globe to celebrate ‘The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever’, spreading even further than the Yorkshire moors that provided the backdrop for Brontë’s moody tale, the actual music video was filmed in the south of England.
If you want to recreate the video accurately, you’ve got to get down to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, which is where you can also find Stonehenge; that’s two bits of history for the price of one. Specifically, an area called Baden’s Clump near the Sidbury Hill area of the chalk plateau was the very spot that Bush floated about like a possessed Cathy, pretending to be up in the wily, windy moors.
While the release of Fennell’s film, a bizarrely eroticised take on a story so concerned with abuse, has seen a rather intense and sharply divided reception from audiences, at least it’s brought Bush’s song back into the charts, even if it’s not even used in the movie.
In February 2026, the same month that ‘Wuthering Heights‘ hit cinemas, Bush’s song came in at number 49 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart, although the song hasn’t fared as well as when ‘Running Up That Hill’ faced a resurgence following its inclusion in Stranger Things, but regardless I’m sure the turnout for the annual Wuthering Heights celebrations in the summer, which is typically held on July 27th, will be bigger than ever this year, thanks to the film introducing many people to the world of Cathy and Heathcliff.
Yet, if you want to recreate the video most accurately, you’ve got to get down to Salisbury, a considerable distance from the cold and gloomy landscapes that sparked Brontë’s imagination.
