Tourism officials to underline Game of Thrones connections with Hadrian’s Wall

Tourism officials want to raise the profile of Hadrian’s Wall, which inspired the Wall from Game of Thrones, and they want George R.R. Martin’s help.

Built by the Romans around 122 AD to guard the northwestern frontier of their empire, Hadrian’s Wall is one of 32 world heritage sites in the UK. The wall runs for 73 miles across England, from Newcastle upon Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the West.

It was also one of the inspirations for the Wall in Game of Thrones. A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin visited it in 1981, and his imagination went wild. “I stood up there and tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills,” he once told Rolling Stone. ‘It was a very profound feeling. For the Romans at that time, this was the end of civilisation; it was the end of the world.” He said he imagined monsters hiding in the dark Scottish highlands, and that the wall felt like a “barrier” against dark forces. Sound familiar?

Now, English Heritage, which manages Hadrian’s Wall, is looking to invest some £30 million (around $41 million) to turn it into a tourist attraction, taking every opportunity it can to underline the wall’s relationship with A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. According to The Sunday Times, it even wants to get George R.R. Martin involved. “We will be exploring every storytelling hook possible to let people around the world know about the wall and its historic significance, which includes using Game of Thrones,” said Lady Gibson, chairwoman of the Hadrian’s Wall partnership board.

Martin is a lover of history, so I could see him getting on board with this if English Heritage can make contact. With £12 million coming from the board and £18 million from the English and Scottish governments, the goal of the project is to turn Hadrian’s Wall into an attraction comparable in notoriety to the Great Wall of China. With the pandemic slowing down global tourism over the last year, visitors have been sparse of late, but emphasizing the Game of Thrones connection could be just what the site needs to revitalize itself.

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h/t Daily Mail