Location
In "The Szechuan Dragon" (season 6, episode #134) a transport truck is seen stopping at the righthand turnoff to Cabot Cove to let out a hitchhiking old sailing captain. The sign indicates that Cabot Cove is 2 miles from this point. The other destinations on the sign are as follows: Portland 20 miles, Biddeford 37 miles, Kennebunkport 48 miles, Kennebunk 46 miles, and Ogunquit is either 50 or 56 miles away. The ZIP Code for Cabot Cove, 03041, is actually for East Derry, New Hampshire.
This would place Cabot Cove 18 to 22 miles northeast of Portland, somewhere between Freeport and Brunswick (placing it in Cumberland County) and off of U.S. Route 1. This distance is corroborated by Harry McGraw (played by Jerry Orbach) who states that Cabot Cove is 121 miles from Boston (season 1, episode #15); though he could be giving a rough estimate. The primary difficulty with this location for Cabot Cove is that a person traveling south or southwest towards Portland, along U.S. Route 1 and making a right hand turn off the highway would be turning west or northwest, away from the Atlantic Ocean, not east towards the ocean where one would expect to find a place called Cabot Cove.
In "Murder Takes a Bus" (season 1, episode #18) Jessica and Sheriff Tupper travel by bus to a convention in Portland from Cabot Cove. When boarding the bus, the driver announces the stops between Cabot Cove and Portland to be Newcastle and Brunswick. This places Cabot Cove up the road from Newcastle and much further from Portland than 18 to 22 miles, since Newcastle is over 50 miles from Portland.
In "A Body to Die For", a sign for US Route 27, which runs nowhere near Maine, is visible on a Cabot Cove street.
There was actually a town by the name of Cabot Cove in northern California, near where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. The television show, however, was filmed at Universal Studios
Read more about this topic: Cabot Cove