I just finished watching the new season of Game Of Thrones. I know. I know. It ended like a month ago…don’t judge! But it got me thinking about Northern Ireland, the series’ main shooting location. I was there about five years ago with my friend Sheri. We were actually based south, out of Dublin, (The Republic of) Ireland, but decided to spend a day in and around Belfast. At the time, GOT was maybe in its fourth season and I’d never seen a single episode, so it was easy to ignore the many tours being offered that were devoted entirely to the show.
For me, the visit to Northern Ireland was more inspired by its history, albeit, the more notorious side. In the eighties, ABC World News Tonight was a staple in our house, and not a broadcast seemed to go by without a story of the continuing “Troubles” that started at the end of the sixties when the mostly Catholic minority nationalist republicans who wanted an independent Ireland, started protesting the discrimination by the mostly Protestant majority unionist government and police force loyal to the UK. Fast forward past the riots, violence and walls constructed to keep the two sides apart (which through history has never been a great idea), and there I was a kid in the eighties, being fed images of IRA bombings and Belfast looking like a war zone and sounding like one of the scariest places on earth. The other scariest place back then was Beirut, another “B” city. But these images had such an effect on me that to this day, if someone orders an Irish Car Bomb at a bar, my eye starts to twitch. I’m not saying that on the odd St. Paddy’s Day I haven’t partaken of said concoction, but I choose to ask for it by the ingredients instead — “Pint of Guinness and a shot of Jameson, please.”
FYI–Charles Oat, who invented the drink in Connecticut in the late seventies, claims the name is derived from the Irish ingredients (some folks prefer their shot to be of Bailey’s instead) and the little explosion that occurs when the shot glass is dropped into the stout, and not from the 20 car bombs the IRA set off one July day in 1972. Hmmm. Okay.
I don’t recall Belfast or Northern Ireland originally being on our list of places to visit while on this trip. Maybe it’s that twisted human thing in all of us that when you find yourself a stone’s thrown away from someplace infamous, you just have to take a peek. I didn’t know what to expect of current day Belfast. I hadn’t read up on it at all beforehand. What I found, though, was a thriving city. No exploding buildings or Irish cars being bombed (although every now and then some issues do still arise). In fact, the Europa, which has been labeled the most bombed hotel in the world–how about that for your tagline?!–having withstood thirty-six attacks during the turbulent times, now stands regal and whole. Man, forget the Stanley Hotel that The Shining‘s Overlook was inspired by, when a hotel has a documentary devoted to it called The Europa Hotel–Bombs, Bullets and Business as Usual, that’s a whole other type of horror story.
I personally felt that there was more of a seriousness to Belfast than there were to cities we visited in The Republic of Ireland. Also, the moment we crossed the border up north, I saw Union Jacks. And I would see many more during our short visit there. I never saw one the entire time we were in Ireland. One other noticeable thing–the many Titanic references in Belfast, which I suppose can be expected, considering the ship was built at what used to be the the Harland & Wolff Shipyard there.
But enough about bombings, ill-named cocktails and unsinkable ships that end up sinking. Let’s talk GOT. Northern Ireland has some really amazing landscape. And, being that the Irish are such wonderful storytellers, even more amazing stories behind these landscapes. This is what led Sheri and I to choose the locations we chose to visit, not realizing some had been, or would later make their way, into GOT.
The Giant’s Causeway is about an hour and ten minute drive north west of Belfast (twice the time if you do the coastal route). It’s this expanse of crazy looking volcanic columns that appear as if they’re rising out of the waters along the coast–some being as tall as 39 feet. They look other worldly, almost as if someone or some thing took the time to carve each block into the same hexagonal shape. (Fill in your alien conspiracy theories here.) They’re actually the result of an ancient volcano erupting, but I like the folklore surrounding it better. Supposedly Irish giant Finn MacCool accepted Scottish giant Benandonner’s fight challenge and built the Causeway to link Ireland to Scotland so they’d be able to get across the Irish Sea for their rumble. But when Finn realizes how huge Benandonner is, he straight punks out and has his wife disguise him as a baby. When Benandonner sees the size of this so-called baby, he decides the dad must be the largest being ever created, and hightails it back to Scotland, destroying the causeway along the way so Big Daddy Finn won’t be able to give chase.
Dunluce Castle ruins are about four and a half miles east of Giant’s Causeway. I never met a castle I didn’t like, so requisite pictures were taken with it in the background. Who knew it was used for the exterior for the House of Greyjoy throughout the series?! Oh sweet, sweet, conflicted Theon! But the castle has its own stories of turmoil and darkness. Built around 1500, there were seizures, clan rebellions, a screaming banshee and parts of the structure falling into the sea during a storm.
As we headed more East along the North Coast, we stopped near Ballintoy Harbour for lunch. There was a giant mounted poster of Theon Greyjoy there. Of course, I didn’t know who the hell that was at the time. Later come to find the Harbour was the exterior for Iron Island scenes. In season two’s episode, “The Night Lands,” it’s where Theon returns home after living with the Starks, and meets his sister Yara, who he, in his very Theon-like way, unwittingly tries to hit on. Ahh, there’s that wonderful GOT incest theme again.
A little further east lies the Carrick-a-Rede, a simple rope suspension bridge. When the Irish speak, it sounds as if they’re calling it the Cuh-Rickety Bridge. (I never did gain an ear for the Irish accent. Half the time I just nodded yes if there was a pause that followed what sounded like a question. Never knew what they were saying or what I was agreeing to. Throw in a couple pints of Guinness, a bar in Galway and an indecipherable Irish sailor on leave, that makes for a very interesting time. True story. Not the beginnings of a limerick) But back tot he Ca-Rickety, er–Carrick-a-Rede. It’s basically made of rope and a plank you walk on, dangles ninety-eight feet above the water, and sways in the wind. The moment your foot makes contact with it, you immediately start thinking, “Why the hell am I crossing this anyway? It doesn’t even lead to anywhere.” (It connects the mainland to a small island salmon fishermen would use, but when the salmon stock became depleted, the island was deserted.) If you have a fear of heights, open spaces, or people, or a fear of heights, open spaces AND people, turn back now!
Around the bay from the bridge are the white limestone cliffs of the Larrybane Quarry. It was here that they filmed some of the Renly Baratheon/Margaery Tyrell scenes, and where Brienne of Tarth (my favorite GOT name–next to Hodar), was introduced as she battled Margaery’s brother Ser Loris in the season two episode “What Is Dead May Never Die.”
Now that I’m a huge fan of the show–albeit a little late–my next time in Northern Ireland, definitely going full tourist mode and booking a GOT tour. Maybe I’ll luck out and one of the many background actors will be on board, and be more than ready to dish some behind the scenes dirt.
