A surprise trip to Westeros: Day Two

After all the fun, excitement and extreme nerdiness of day one of Dan's 30th birthday surprise, it was time to chill out and take in a bit of Northern Ireland's gorgeous countryside on a Game of Thrones film locations tour. I'd booked us on a tour with McComb's, because I'd seen some great reviews and heard that they also transport the cast members, so I thought there might be a chance to get some inside gossip. Not that I would know what the hell they were talking about...

The map below, which was at the Game of Thrones exhibition we attended the day before, shows some of the locations around the north coast that we'd be visiting on our coach trip. You can also plan your own tour as details of the locations are on Discover Northern Ireland, although obviously you don't get the insider info.

Shortly after leaving Belfast we reached the first filming location. We really weren't allowed to stop for a gawp and it's not officially part of the tour, due to some legal restrictions, but we were able to do a drive by as it's visible from the road...

This is the exterior set of Castle Black, which has been built on the side of a quarry. Not a great photo I know, but we just had to get a quick snap as the bus went past. However, you can see where they've painted the wall white to create, y'know, The Wall. I'm not sure of its exact location, but it's on the way to Larne, which we discovered was the home town of a hero pigeon called Paddy who is commemorated with a plaque next to the harbour. We also learnt that there are no wild snakes in Ireland.

Next on the list was a stop off at Cushendun Caves, County Antrim, which played the part of the Stormlands. Apparently the locals of this village prefer to keep goats as pets, rather than dogs or cats. There's even a statue to commemorate one that had to be put down during the foot and mouth outbreak. Yeah, we could certainly tell we were out in the sticks.

Top right and bottom left are the cave where the Red Witch gives birth to the Shadow Assassin. Top left and bottom right is where she comes ashore in the boat with Davos Seaworthy.

We had thought about posing for photos as the Red Witch giving birth, because we embrace any opportunity to be silly, but the ground was really wet and muddy, so it was out of the question. Despite it being a nice day it was also freezing once we got in the cave and occasionally you'd get drips of water from the ceiling land on your head or down your neck. I really have no idea how the actress managed to do that scene naked. Our guide informed us that the drips actually caused problems during the filming of that scene, so someone had to be on hand with a towel to keep wiping the ceiling.

This was another drive by shot and is a lovely bit of greenery that appeared in the very first episode. This location was used for the scene where Ned Stark beheads a deserter of the Night's Watch.

Then it was on to the Iron Islands, home of Theon Greyjoy, which looks a lot cleaner and prettier than it appears in Game of Thrones and is really Ballintoy Harbour, County Antrim. The wee building you see is a little shop and cafe in real life, but to make it look the part for the series they pulled some tiles off the roof and pulled the guttering down.

The harbour, top left, featured in the scenes where Theon arrives back in the Iron Islands and also when he leaves to attack Winterfell on his ship... Sea Bitch.

The beach, bottom left, is where Theon is christened when he returns to the Iron Islands and is located up the hill slightly from the harbour. Our guide did offer to chuck water over anyone wanting to be christened, but we all decline. Apparently only one crazy fan has ever said yes to the offer.

Here's Dan at Renly Baratheon's camp from season two, which in real life is actually a... Any guesses? A National Trust car park! I know, the glamour.

In case you're not sure what one of those looks like, here's a shot of it with some buses...



So this is actually located in Larrybane, Carrick-a-Rede, County Antrim, and serves as the car park for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is one of the area's main attractions. The rope bridge, measuring 20 metres and located 30 metres above the sea, was originally constructed by fishermen so they could get from the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede to the mainland. Thankfully, there wasn't enough time for our bus party to cross the bridge, which was lucky since I'm not good with heights and hadn't brought any spare pants with me.

Obligatory tourist snap.
This is what the view opposite the car park looks like.

This is the King's Road, which features in season one when Arya escapes from King's Landing. It looks beautiful in the day time, but I imagine it looks pretty spooky at night or when it's foggy.

These beech trees are really know as The Dark Hedges and are also in County Antrim. They were planted by the wealthy Stuart family and are about 400 years old. Our guide informed us that the lady of the family wanted to create a fairytale entrance to their estate, which would look beautiful during the day, but sinister come nightfall.

We bumped into Joffrey and Tyrion while we were there...

I thought this teeny tiny shop was cute. It's next to a lovely village pub we stopped at for lunch called the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy. I went all Irish and had a beef and Guinness pie.

So after soaking up a bit more scenery on the way back, and a stop off at the Giant's Causeway (more on that later), that was it for the tour and the nerdiness. I really can't praise the tour company enough for the trip, our guide really knew his stuff, to the point where he was offering season five spoilers/location details to those who wanted them, and he was good fun. At some of the locations he even got his iPad out to show us scenes where the locations appeared, which was great for me as I had no idea what we were looking at!

It was a long day though. Having left at 9am, we arrived back in Belfast about 6pm and because I was unwell for the entire trip with a stinking cold we headed back to the hotel for a Lemsip. I know, rock 'n' roll right?