My Tour of Westeros: Visiting the Game of Thrones filming locations, Part 1

The Game of Thrones filming location tours throughout Northern Ireland are spectacular, and worth taking for any fan. Let me take you through my experience.

I recently went to Ireland to cement my nerd cred by going on not one, but two Game of Thrones filming location tours. The first one was with Finn McCool’s; the second with Game of Thrones Tours. Each tour left from Dublin and cost around 60 Euro, each lasted about 12 hours, and each featured a lively collection of international nerds as patrons. Aside from those similarities, the two tours offered very different experiences. Both were spectacular, and well worth taking for any fan. Let me take you through my experience.

The trip began fittingly, as the in-flight entertainment on Aer Lingus featured episodes of Game of Thrones season 7. The flight was six-and-a-half hours—just enough time to binge the whole season and really get in the mood for my visit to Westeros.

I landed in Dublin on Friday morning and had the day to explore the city before getting to bed early in order to be on time for the 6:45 a.m. departure for the Finn McCool’s tour. These tours leave promptly, so if you plan on going, be sure to arrive on time. The itinerary included the Dark Hedges (the Kingsroad), Dunluce Castle (inspiration for Harrenhal and Pyke), the Giant’s Causeway (not a Game of Thrones filming location but a UNESCO World Heritage Site and utterly spectacular), Ballintoy Harbor (Pyke), the quarry at Larrybane Bay (Renley’s camp), and the Cushendun Caves (where Melisandre gave birth to the shadow demon), with a quick stop in Belfast on the way back.

From Dublin, it’s about a two-hour drive to Northern Ireland, where the filming locations are located. It was along the M1 Motorway, so it wasn’t the most scenic drive, but our guide, Tara, made it interesting by pointing out Irish landmarks and legends along the way. Approaching Belfast, Tara gave an abbreviated yet poignant history of “the Troubles,” and going through the city she noted certain neighborhoods that are still cloaked in fencing and barbed wire as a result of the strife.

The Finn McCool tour was first and foremost a Game of Thrones filming location tour, but we picked up a load of people in Belfast who didn’t watch the show and were primarily interested in seeing the Giant’s Causeway and the countryside. This tour works either way—it wasn’t all Thrones all the time. In addition to those notes about landmarks and legends, Tara interspersed her narrative with tidbits about Irish history and industry—we drove right by the Bushmill’s distillery. You don’t need to be a Game of Thrones fan to appreciate the green rolling hills, separated by hedgerows and dotted with creamy bundles of sheep, or the charming stone cottages and fences that pop up along the country roads.

That said, if you are a fan, you’ll get a thrill as you pull up to the various stops. The first was the Dark Hedges, an avenue of towering beech trees whose branches meet and intertwine above the lane. This location was featured in Episode 1 of Season 2, “The North Remembers,” where Arya was traveling with Gendry, Yoren and Hot Pie along the Kingsroad after escaping from King’s Landing. The Dark Hedges exude a mysticism and makes you think that anything might be possible. Adding to that is a legend that a ghostly “Grey Lady” wanders through the Hedges at dusk.

Beware the local traffic, however. Tara warned everyone before walking across the road to the location that residents are not happy about the hordes of tourists that descend on the Hedges year-round, and aren’t above splashing them with one of the puddles left by the intermittent rain.

The next stop was Dunluce Castle, the inspiration for the fire-scorched castle of Harrenhal and the castle at Pyke. We were only able to observe this crumbling ruin from afar since the structure is unstable, with parts of it having broken away and fallen into the sea. It was for this reason, according to Tara, that Dunluce Castle served as a mere inspiration rather than an actual set. Distance did not lessen the impact of the site, however, which juts out of the rugged coastline as a kind of sentinel by the sea.

After Dunluce Castle, it was on to the Giant’s Causeway, a collection of nearly-uniform hexagonal stones that form towers along the coast. One theory posits that they were shaped by time and erosion; a more colorful one speculates they were masoned and placed there by the Irish giant Finn McCool, who wanted to build a bridge to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart. In this windswept landscape, it’s easy to let go of logic and indulge in flights of fancy, because how could all of these stones have been fashioned so meticulously by the vagaries of nature? The theme of the day was Game of Thrones, after all, so giants building stone bridges doesn’t seem that far-fetched next to dragons and White Walkers.

The next stop was Ballintoy Harbor, the location for both Theon’s arrival at Pyke Harbor in season 2, and the area of Dragonstone where Melisandre burns lords at the stake. It’s a steep hike from where the bus parks down to the harbor, so do not smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em before embarking on the trek — you’ll never make it back up the hill.

Here, Tara used production stills to show how little Game of Thrones dressed the set, and gave some inside information on the production itself. Did you know there is such a thing as drone-seeking hawks? Game of Thrones uses them to patrol the airspace above filming to to knock drones out of the sky!

Tara also described the process for becoming an extra on the series, which involves queuing up for hours, if not days, to see if you have the right look. If you do, you can become an extra and earn 120 Euro per day plus bragging rights. (The guide for the second tour was a wildling extra who appeared in, among other episodes, “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards.” He was sporting a jacket with “We Do Not Kneel” emblazoned on the back and “Dragon Unit Belfast 2015” written on the sleeve. Cool.)

From Ballintoy Harbor we drove just a mile or so down the road to the quarry at Larrybane Bay, where the show filmed scenes in Renly’s camp for season 2. Tara pointed out the path Catelyn walked down to approach Renly and the place where Renly and Margaery sat to watch Brienne battle it out with Loras Tyrell to earn her place in Renly’s Kingsguard. Again Tara used stills to illustrate some of the “oops” moments from the series, like the Irish flag flying behind Renly and Margaery and the tourists wandering around Carrick-a-Rede Island in the background.

The final filming location stop was Cushendun Village and the Cushendun Caves, the site of Ser Davos’ and Melisandre’s landing in the Stormlands and where Melisandre birthed the shadow demon that assassinated Renly. The caves themselves were otherworldly, with the gentle swooshing of the waves echoing throughout the chambers. And because the show didn’t alter the location it was easy to imagine Melisandre in the throes of “child” birth there.

Around the Cushendun Caves, Tara served up more production trivia when she explained why and how Game of Thrones filmed around—or rather through—this gate:

Apparently, the Cushendun Caves are a favorite drinking spot for local teenagers, and the homeowners whose driveway goes through the caves grew tired of those teenagers accessing their property. They built the gate to keep the partiers out, but because it is attached to the caves themselves, which are a national historic site, it has become a part of the caves and cannot be altered.  That’s why it can be seen as Davos looks on in horror while the shadow demon is born.

With the filming locations behind us, we drove through the stunning Glens of Antrim on the way to Belfast, where there was time for a little sightseeing and a pint at White’s Tavern before heading back to Dublin to do it all over again the next day.

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