If, like me, you live in the UK, or if you live anywhere else and have money to burn, you may be interested in traveling to Northern Ireland and taking in some of the many Game of Thrones filming locations there. While plenty of companies offer guided tours to these locations, there is another, less restrictive way to travel the Kingsroad.
A couple years back, several trees along Norther Ireland’s famous Dark Hedges (known to Game of Thrones fans as the Kingsroad) blew over in Storm Gertrude. Wood from those felled trees was taken and fashioned into a series of 10 intricate doors, each of which tells the story of a different episode on season 6. Now, those doors hang in different locations across Northern Ireland.
Now, Discover Northern Ireland has created a Journey of Doors “passport” for fans. It can be downloaded in PDF format here, and is also available in an app for iPhone and Android users. The passport acts as a handy guide to where the doors are located, and names the filming locations nearby. Below is the first door, located at The Cuan Restaurant (fun fact: cuan is the Irish word for ‘harbor’) in the seaside village of Strangford, Co. Down. Close to this pub is Castle Ward, which has featured as Winterfell on several occasions and has housed plenty of pivotal scenes.
The second door is located at Fiddler’s Green in Portaferry, Co. Down, and prominently features the kraken of House Greyjoy and the flayed man of House Bolton.
The kraken also features on the third door, located in Percy French, Newcastle, County Down, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. While there, you can visit nearby Tollymore Forest, where the Night’s Watchmen encountered White Walkers in the very first episode of the show.
Housed at Blakes of the Hollow in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, the fourth door is depicts Daenerys’ burning the khals and gaining new Dothraki followers.
At Owen’s pub in Limavady, Co. Londonderry, you can check out the fifth door and face off with a pretty spectacular rendition of the Night King as he towers over the Stark direwolf, a reminder of (ironically) “The Door.” This particular pub is pretty close to Downhill Beach, an 11km stretch of sand that stood in for Dragonstone in season 2. It’s also quite close to Binevenagh, which will be recognizable to fans as the Dothraki grasslands where Daenerys Targaryen was captured in “Mother’s Mercy.”
The Sixth Door is located the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy, Co. Antrim. It’s near Ballintoy Harbour, where the show has filmed many a scene on the Iron Islands.
Or visit the seventh door, which depicts the Three-Eyed Raven at Gracehill House, Stranocum, Co. Antrim. This impressive estate is near the Dark Hedges themselves.
Gracehill House also does weddings, so if you’re that obsessed, and that loaded, you can always opt for a Thrones themed wedding — minus (or including) the murder, depending on how annoying your guests are.
The eighth door, located at Mary McBride’s in Cushendun, Co. Antrim, focuses on Braavos.
Now we come to the ninth door, which commemorates the Battle of the Bastards with towering images of the Stark direwolf and the Bolton flayed man, is located at Ballygally Castle in Ballygally, Co. Antrim. Nearby, you can take in Cairncastle, where Ned Stark executed a Night’s Watch deserted in the pilot episode.
Finally, the tenth door features a proud Lannister lion, because of that whole Cersei-killed-everyone thing. You can find it at the Dark Horse in Belfast, where the show films much of its interiors.
There are 25 Game of Thrones filming locations in Northern Ireland alone, and they’re all accessible to the public, which makes location-spotting pretty easy for anyone who wants to explore. Thanks to Discover’s new passport, fans can save themselves the hassle of researching the locations themselves, and spare a few pennies on a guided tour.
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2017/04/18/discover-northern-ireland-offers-fans-a-do-it-yourself-thrones-tour/
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