Hobbiton Movie Set Wins Title Of Largest Film Set In Guinness World Records 2025® Book
After Tolkienesque scrutiny and research of the many contenders, Guinness World Records determined that the Hobbiton Movie Set met the grade to claim the ultimate prize: not one ring to rule them all, but rather an official Guinness World Records certificate.
Hobbiton Movie Set General Manager Tourism, Shayne Forrest says, 'It was very exciting to be contacted by the Guinness World Records team, confirming that Hobbiton Movie Set is indeed the Largest Film Set in the world. Visitors to Hobbiton Movie Set are often blown away by the scale of the Movie Set and the detail they kept in the gardens and Hobbit Holes nestled into the hillsides of The Shire, so to be recognized for this is fantastic'.
The Movie Set that visitors travel from all over the world to see today was originally created over nine months in 1999 after Sir Peter Jackson's team of location scouts found a home for the Hobbits in the rolling green hills of the Waikato countryside through an aerial search a year earlier.
Help was provided by the New Zealand Army, and soon 39 temporary Hobbit Holes were scattered across the plot used for the set. Filming for The Lord of the Rings trilogy commenced in December 1999, and it took around three months to get a wrap on The Shire. After an initial attempt at demolition, 17 bare plywood facades remained. In 2009, Sir Peter Jackson returned to film The Hobbit trilogy, and he left behind the beautiful Movie Set you'll see today: 44 permanently reconstructed Hobbit Holes, in the same fantastic detail seen in the movies.
Hobbiton Movie Set has since grown, with the addition of The Green Dragon Inn in 2012, where visitors conclude their experience with a complimentary Southfarthing beverage. A long-held dream was reached in 2023, when two interior Hobbit Holes were welcomed to the Movie Set allowing visitors to venture beyond the door of a Hobbit's home for the very first time.
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