Season 8 filming: Game of Thrones clears out of Ballintoy Harbour

Last week, the Game of Thrones crew loaded into Ballintoy Harbour, most famous among fans for standing in for the Iron Islands, with lights trailers…the whole nine yards. Then, a few days later, Oakleaf Photography‏ posted photos of the production setting up…

…and filming scenes at night:

These shots surfaced on Monday, but according to Oakleaf, the cast and crew trailers were packed up and on their way out by Wednesday afternoon, although the harbor is still closed so a team can tidy it up. Looks empty to us:

"As of this morning, filming in Ballintoy has finished from freefolk"

Way to steal the photo, adorable fluffy dog.

Anyway, assuming that the crew doesn’t return to the area, filming here was pretty quick. We didn’t see any cast members milling about, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any — they did shoot at night, after all.

Another possibility is that the crew stopped by Ballintoy to snap some shots of the landscape sans stars, perhaps to edit into a montage. That idea’s been floating around ever since we heard that the show was going to return to Highgarden in season 8, albeit only briefly. Is the crew picking up shots from various places around Westeros so it can show snow falling lightly on all of them, indicating that winter has come to the continent? We can see that being a powerful moment.

It’s also possible that Ballintoy is standing in for somewhere entirely different this go-round. But whatever happens, this may be the last time the crew visits this particular location. We bid it a fond farewell.

Next: Take the Black Podcast: Connecting the dots behind the scenes of season 8

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