Warning: This Article Contains Spoilers For Outer Banks Season 4!
Outer Banks highlights local North Carolina history and culture through its swashbuckling teenage main characters, but it was largely filmed in South Carolina. This season, Outer Banks takes viewers through a deep dive into Blackbeard’s legend, which details a real pirate who was killed near Ocracoke Island in 1718. Despite the show’s North Carolina roots, many of the show’s iconic marsh scenes and more are shot in South Carolina.
Since season 1 of Outer Banks, the show has incorporated ties to North Carolina, through characters’ surnames, local businesses, and more. This season brought filming to the real Outer Banks of North Carolina, with a number of beach scenes shot at the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area in North Carolina. However, a number of Outer Banks treasure-hunting scenes were filmed in South Carolina yet again.
Poguelandia 2.0
The Pogues’ Commune In Season 4 Was Shot Near Charleston
Poguelandia 2.0 in season 4 of Outer Banks was shot near Charleston, South Carolina. The surf shop was built by the cast and crew, including series star Chase Stokes (via Netflix). While the structure was built for the show, surf and bait shops are common local businesses for fisherman across the Carolinas.
After the Pogues make their way home to Kildare Island with the gold they found at El Dorado, they find their treasure cashes in for over $1 million. With their sudden wealth, the predominantly working-class group uses their money to lift themselves out of their struggles. The group purchases JJ’s foreclosed childhood home, building a surf and bait shop along the dock. The house and surf shop property is dubbed “Poguelandia 2.0” to mirror the deserted island the group began season 3 of Outer Banks stranded on.
The communal living situation also boasts an herb garden. Poguelandia 2.0 becomes the solution to John B.’s (Chase Stokes) homelessness as well, after he lost his father Big John Routledge (Charles Halford) at El Dorado and his home was burnt down by Rafe Cameron (Drew Starkey) in season 3.
Note: Many additional scenes in the Pogues’ hometown, like Sarah’s trip into a looted drugstore in episode seven, were filmed around Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
The Enduro Race
The Racing Episode Bought The Crew On A Rare Trip To Filming In North Carolina
The Enduro bike race was filmed at Kure Beach within Fort Fisher State Recreation Area in North Carolina. JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow) bets the group’s last piece of gold that he can win the dirt bike race against the wealthy Kooks, and ultimately loses in part due to his bike’s crude mechanics.
While the race starts and ends on the North Carolina beach, the scenes filmed in the woods were shot on Copperhead ranch in Rocky Point, North Carolina. The race ends in JJ losing the group’s last bit of wealth to Topper Thornton (Austin North) of the rival Kook gang, placing them in the position to potentially lose their land.
Blackstone Manor
Wes Genrette’s Ancestral Home Was Filmed In South Carolina
The mysterious Blackstone Manor, where the wealthy but haunted Wes Genrette (David Jensen) lives on land gifted to his family by the British Crown centuries earlier, was shot in Charleston, South Carolina. The real house is the Admiral’s House in Quarter G of Charleston, and is a real historical landmark.
Genrette reveals to the Pogues that he fears his family is cursed, because his ancestor killed the legendary pirate Blackbeard nearby. Members of the family faced puzzling sudden deaths immediately after seeing the ghost of Blackbeard’s wife, Elizabeth Teach, who was buried without her precious amulet. It was lost in the shipwreck among the rest of Blackbeard’s treasure, which Genrette enlists the Pogues to find. The amulet and Blackbeard’s treasure are the central hunt of Outer Banks season 4.
Note: When JJ meets with Groff in episode seven, they visit a boathouse on the property. That is actually filmed in a different location, at Richmond Plantation in South Carolina.
Kildare Hospital
The Hyperbaric Chambers That Kiara And JJ Are Placed In Were Filmed At A Charleston Area Hospital
After an altercation ensues underwater in pursuit of Blackbeard’s treasure, JJ and Kiara Carrera (Madison Bailey) are hospitalized for “the bends,” slang for decompression sickness, a phenomenon in which dissolved gasses (usually, nitrogen) form bubbles in the bloodstream and tissues (via National Institute of Health). To treat decompression sickness, the pair are placed in a hyperbaric chamber for hours.
The hospital where the hyperbaric chamber scenes were filmed is located within May Forest State Park in Charleston, South Carolina. The hospital is located close to where Poguelandia and a number of other scenes in season 4 were shot, adding realism to this season’s urgent driving scenes.
Charleston Church
The Pogues Head To Charleston To Hunt For Blackbeard Clues
The Pogues make their way to Charleston in season 4 of Outer Banks in search of Blackbeard’s ultimate treasure, the Blue Crown. As Charleston is the site of a number of historical landmarks associated with both Blackbeard and Colonial America, Pope Heyward’s (Jonathan Daviss) research takes the group south.
The catacomb in which Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and Pope are trapped in pursuit of Blackbeard’s clues was filmed at the Old Exchange Building (Provost) in Charleston. The earlier interior scenes in which Sarah and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) attempt to distract the priest from Pope’s prodding were shot at Unitarian Church, with the exterior graveyard shots of John B. bumping into his ancestor’s grave were shot at Circular Congregational Church. All of these Outer Banks locations were in proximity to one another in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Moroccan Beach
The Pogues Head To Morroco In Episode 9
When the Pogues attempt to make their way from South Carolina to Morocco in episode nine, they find themselves on rough waters more than once. Their boat initially gets stuck on the shoals of the Outer Banks and they have to get a new one. While that scene, in which Rafe and Shoupe negotiate, was filmed just off the coast of South Carolina, after traveling through a storm, they do actually land on the beaches of Morocco.
The beach scenes were filmed on location in Morocco. The beach the Pogues land on, then JJ and Sarah wash ashore on, is the real-life beach of Cap Hadid. When The Pogues head further inland in pursuit of Groff, that filming is done in the city of Essaouira, Morocco. The city is one of the most popular filming destinations in the country and used to be named Mogador, which gets a mention in the show. The scroll with the location of the Blue Crown is the Mogador Scroll.
Agapenta
Agapenta Is Not Real
As the Pogues and the mercenaries both search for the Blue Crown in Morocco, everyone has to get to the fictional city of Agapenta. Agapenta is a city created specifically for the series, but scenes there were really filmed in Morocco as well. Outer Banks filmed for six weeks in Ouarzazate, Morocco, a city known as the “door to the desert” because of how close it is to the Sahara Desert, a stand-in for Agapenta.
Morocco has long been a filming location for Hollywood. Classics like Casablanca shot in Morocco, and more recently, television shows like Game of Thrones and The Witcher have also filmed in the country. The first two seasons of Game of Thrones even filmed in some of the same cities as Outer Banks.
The end of season 4 also teases a potentially new location for the Pogues in season 5 – Portugal. Outer Banks could film parts of its final season there, but will likely return to South Carolina as well.
