A wall of pale clay cliffs rises straight from the beach along Lake Ontario, with no buildings in the frame.
What Scarborough Bluffs looks like
The Scarborough Bluffs rise straight up from Lake Ontario for about 15 kilometres, reaching close to 90 metres at their tallest point. The clay face is bare over long stretches, pale grey and tan, cut through with thin bands of sediment and streaked where rain has carried loose material to the base. No buildings stand along the cliff edge or the beach below it.
, reached only by Brimley Road South, is the sole spot with a sandy beach and a way down to the water. A marina sits at its edge, moored sailboats lined up along wooden docks inside a boat basin closed off from the open lake by man-made breakwaters and berms. Gravel paths run along the stone breakwater and around the basin.
Most of the other bluffs parks sit on top of the escarpment with no way down. and both look straight out over the drop, with nothing but grass and a low railing at the edge.
, farther east, scatters salvaged stone columns, arches and facades from demolished downtown Toronto buildings across its clifftop lawns. A trail through is the way down to the shore on that end of the bluffs, dropping through trees to a narrow beach below the cliff.
Fresh slides of pale clay pile at the base of the cliffs in several places, the loose material spreading out across the sand or the rocks beneath it. Tree roots hang exposed where the upper edge has crumbled away.
Shot in Scarborough Bluffs
Monk shot its 2002 episodes "Mr. Monk and the Psychic" and "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation" at opposite ends of Bluffer's Park, then digitally added the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz to disguise the beach as San Francisco. Spasms, a 1983 horror film, opened with the bluffs standing in for a remote African island. Guild Park and Gardens was dressed as a German park for a reunion scene in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story. Scarboro Crescent Park, which sits on the clifftop with no way down to the water, stood in for Prince Edward Island throughout Road to Avonlea.
Prom Night, 1980
The runaway van
Played the cliff where Slick's van goes over
A masked killer stabs Slick and forces him to drive his van off a cliff at Bluffer's Park, sending him to his death. Prom Night, directed by Paul Lynch and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, shot over 24 days beginning in August 1979.
Star Trek: Discovery, 2019
Played the Kelpien homeworld of Kaminar
Star Trek: Discovery's "The Sound of Thunder" and the Short Treks episode "The Brightest Star" were both filmed in 2019, at the same time on an outdoor set built into the bluffs. The set stood in for the Kelpien homeworld of Kaminar, its huts designed with the same angular lines as the Kelpien character Saru's facial makeup.
The Umbrella Academy, "Kindest Cut" (season 3)
Played the beach where Klaus meets his mother
In the season three episode "Kindest Cut," Klaus meets his mother on the white sand beach beneath the cliffs at Bluffer's Park. The Netflix series returned to the bluffs more than once across its run, alongside Hamilton's Gage Park.
What Scarborough Bluffs can double for
Drakes Beach in Point Reyes, California
Drakes Beach sits beneath pale, eroded cliffs that rise straight above a narrow strip of sand, much like the cliff and beach combination at Scarborough. The bluffs there show the same banded, wind carved clay face with almost no plant cover. Pacific surf and a wider coastal horizon give away the ocean in a wide shot, so keep the beach low in frame and hold the cliff line behind it. Try searching pale eroded coastal cliffs now.
Cavendish in Prince Edward Island, Canada
Scarboro Crescent Park has already stood in for Prince Edward Island throughout Road to Avonlea, framed as a grassy clifftop over the water rather than the cliff face itself. Cavendish, on PEI's north shore, has the same kind of open bluff top over the water that the series borrowed. PEI's own cliffs are red sandstone, so a shot that lingers on the cliff face gives the location away. Keep the camera on the grass and the horizon, the way Road to Avonlea did. Try searching grassy clifftop over water now.
Birling Gap in East Sussex, England
Birling Gap sits at the foot of the Seven Sisters, a run of bare chalk cliffs that rise straight above a narrow shingle beach. Grass tops the cliffs at both places, and almost nothing is built along the edge. The chalk at Birling Gap is a brighter white than Scarborough's grey and tan clay, so a shot that lingers on the cliff face itself will show the difference. Favour distance, haze or lower light instead. Try searching bare cliffs above a beach now.
Cheltenham Badlands in Caledon, Ontario, Canada
The Cheltenham Badlands are bare red and grey clay hills cut into narrow ridges by rain, a different formation from Scarborough's cliff but the same kind of exposed, banded clay with almost no plant cover. There is no beach or lake edge here, so it only doubles for the bluffs' close clay texture rather than the whole scene. Keep the frame tight on the clay itself. A wider shot reveals rolling farmland around the badlands instead of open water. Try searching bare banded clay hills now.
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