Our readers may have noticed we were a bit quiet last week after the airing of “The Winds of Winter”. For those who watched Linda’s review video, you’ll know why, but for those who didn’t it just so happened that we headed out early Monday to the airport to get ourselves over to Northern Ireland, the home base for much of the filming of Game of Thrones.
At the invitation of Tourism Ireland, Linda and I spent the better part of four days seeing the sites, traveling around much of the beautiful Northern Irish countryside and coastline to see locations as diverse as Ballintoy Harbor (which served as Lordsport and the Iron Isles), Castle Ward (Winterfell), and the Dark Hedges (part of the Kingsroad). At the same time, we were able to visit the ten Game of Thrones-themed doors installed in various noteworthy pubs, restaurants, and hotels throughout the country. These doors draw on the bountiful imagery of the series, and happen to have been made from beech wood reclaimed from two of the ancient trees of the Dark Hedges that had fallen thanks to the storm Gertrude.
Below, you’ll find our very first video in the series, discussing our trip and focusing on the first two doors which can be found at The Cuan in Strangford and Fiddler’s Green in Portaferry, right across the lough.
In the coming days we’ll be highlighting the rest of the doors in pairs, as well as some of our other adventures in Northern Ireland (which includes the result of a conversation with an ewe and her lamb, watching Linda try out her archery skills and get beheaded, and wolfing down enormous steaks fit for King Robert’s own table, among other things!)