Last August, we got the quintessential Game of Thrones (bonus Star Wars) experience as we travelled to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, courtesy of Tourism Ireland and Etihad Airways, to see where the mammoth TV show films. Cue archery training, breathtaking scenery and an 8am run-in with Jason Momoa.
STRANGFORD
The Cuan is a cosy inn run by Peter and Caroline in the village of Strangford, Northern Ireland (population 500). The couple is sweet, elderly and married, and they like to blast Game of Thrones music through a boombox in the mornings while serving soft boiled eggs, cheese, bread and mint tea — Catelyn Stark’s breakfast from the G.R.R. Martin books.
The family-owned hotel is just one of many hidden treasures in Northern Ireland that have benefited from the grisly HBO series filming in their backyard. Over the course of six larger-than-life seasons, Game of Thrones — a fantasy drama that takes place in the fictional world of Westeros and Essos — has become one of the most popular TV shows of our generation. It shoots largely in Northern Ireland and is funded in part by Northern Ireland Screen; the agency has spent a total of £13.75 million (Dh63.34 million) on the show since it began in 2010 and estimates that the series has brought £148 million into the economy.
During season one, before the show became a cultural phenomenon, the cast stayed at The Cuan. A piece of paper at reception reads:
Room 1 Jon Snow — Kit Harrington
Room 2 Arya Stark — Maisie Williams
Room 3 Ned Stark — Sean Bean
Room 4 Night Porter
Room 5 Queen Cersei (Lannister) — Lena Heady
Room 6 Catelyn Stark — Michelle Fairley
Room 7 King Robert Barathean — Mark Addy
Room 8 Bran Stark — Isaac Hempstead Wright
Room 9 Joffrey Barathean — Jack Gleeson
Drive ten minutes from the inn, and you’re standing in front of Winterfell, the daunting, gloriously grey home of the Starks. (In reality, it’s Castle Ward, an 18th century property spread across 332 hectares — nearly the size of Central Park in New York, and twice the size of Monaco.)
If you’ve signed up for a tour (gameofthrones-winterfelltours.com), you’re handed a fake sword and a weighty cape (far too heavy to keep on, far too cool-looking to take off) and given an archery lesson in the same spot where Jon Snow and Robb Stark taught a young Bran how to shoot. The winner gets to fake-behead the loser over a log, with the pictures to prove it.
Guided tours take the form of cycling, walking or even boating through iconic scenes: Robb’s Camp, where Jamie Lannister had been held in a cage; the castle where Bran famously fell to his death; the cottage of the Winterfell brothel and the tree where Brienne once discovered three hanging bodies.
The scenarios are morbid, yet the locations are anything but. If anything, they’re surreally peaceful and practically otherworldly, more suitable for family photo ops than for routine, bloody murder. With the right tour guide — ours was a delightful history major who now leads tours full-time — the stories behind the scenes become just as fascinating for a total GoT newbie as they are for a steadfast fan.
BELFAST
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, is a colossally colourful city. It’s drenched in explicit political graffiti and home to Mount Stewart, the massively flamboyant gardens planted in the 1920s, which were restored a few years ago to the tune of £8 million. It’s also where the Titanic was built.
A new, interactive visitor attraction dubbed the Titanic Belfast (it was built in 2012) shows the shipwreck in a new light. The focus is on the builders who spent two years away from their families to perform grim manual labour (some lost their hearing from how loud the construction was) only to mourn the loss of their work almost immediately in the collision.
Our hotel in Belfast was a monument of a different kind: the Europa, the most bombed hotel in the world. It was blown up a whopping 36 times during the Troubles. And yet, a sign in the lobby proudly declares: “PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON stayed here, 30th November 1995.”
DERRY
Every day, a gaggle of Game of Thrones fans trek to the middle of nowhere — Seaview Hall, 13 New Road, Glenarm to be precise — to find Brona Spencer’s jewellery shop. It’s where the Starks and Lannisters get all their old-timey accessories made for TV.
For 36 years, Spencer’s parents ran Steensons Workshop and Gallery before passing it on to her and her husband, Dan. About a decade ago, the head costume designer on Game of Thrones called in a favour, asking for a custom piece of jewellery for the show’s debut season.
The result was a 10 kg livery collar made of bronze (the equivalent of wearing a Dachshund around your neck), which took two weeks to craft and barely enjoyed any airtime. Seven seasons later, the jewellers are still working on the show and selling replicas in their shop (sadly, they don’t have clearance for online sales just yet).
GoT may be the thing that put Steensons on the global map, but it’s not what rakes in sales. Most fans ask a barrage of questions and leave empty-handed.
Kit Harrington, however, made an anxious visit to Steenson’s Belfast branch to buy a ring for his girlfriend, presumably GoT co-star Rose Leslie, and left with his purchase. There was no diamond in it, though Harrington was frazzled enough to come back with two other cast members for a second opinion.
Celebrities: they’re just like us.
MALIN HEAD, DONEGAL
A spray-painted Yoda welcomes you into Farren’s Bar in Donegal. He wasn’t always there. But Star Wars: The Force Awakens decided to film its final scene, and the film’s upcoming sequel, amidst the striking, jagged terrain of Malin Head (the most northerly point of the Republic of Ireland) and the whole place went Star Wars crazy.
One night, Mark Hamill (a.k.a. Luke Skywalker) stopped by Farren’s for a nightcap. Bar owner Hugh Farren was star-struck.
“I couldn’t speak. I was in total shock,” he told Gulf News tabloid!. A friend had called him and told him to make sure he’s at the bar at 10pm, though he couldn’t explain why, thanks to the notorious secrecy surrounding the franchise. Farren had a feeling it would be a celebrity, so he got a marker ready and took a pair of Kickers’ Stroomtrooper shoes out of storage.
“I heard [Hamill] doesn’t do signatures, but he did this time,” said Farren, clutching the prized shoe to his chest.
He had thought he was a fan, until he saw the steely dedication of people coming up to Malin Head to catch a glance of the set.
“The dads pretended they were there for their kids,” said Farren.
“To think it was only filming up the road, it’s an unbelievable feeling. There were at least six lightsabres — 200 pound [90kg] ones — and [fans] were having fights with them,” he added.
Some of Farren’s own friends were recruited to work with the local crew, but weren’t allowed to speak about it and resorted to charades to try and get their pals to guess.
In true JJ Abrams (co-writer and co-producer) style, the sets — including a gated, private home with magnificent black, brown and white horses strolling around its farmyard — were cordoned off a mile away. 300 staff members were hired to shield the area. Two guards had binoculars. For maximum privacy, the cast, including Daisy Ridley, were rumoured to have stayed at private homes rather than hotels. (Hamill, however, apparently stayed at the Red Castle.)
Typically rainy, Ireland called on its twisted sense of humour and was perfectly sunny on filming days, necessitating two lorries carrying a thousand litres of water to create the stormy atmosphere required.
DUBLIN
Dublin is tame when you compare it to London or New York, but a real city when you compare it to Derry or Donegal. If you’re looking to casually bump into a celebrity, it’s the place to go.
One star-studded spot is The Merrion, a timeless, luxury hotel that once upon a time welcomed President Barack and Michelle Obama. It’s extravagant in an old-fashioned way, made up of restored Georgian buildings in Dublin’s city centre and doubling as a museum, offering tours of more than ninety privately-owned works of 19th-20th century art.
The service is discreet, down to the attendants out front wearing top hats and black capes.
But “whenever Bruce Springstreen is here, it’s pandemonium,” said marketing manager Sarah Glavey. “Outside the hotel and the back entrance are completely swarmed.”
People were once irrevocably convinced that Justin Bieber was there, which resulted in the same chaos. “He was travelling with Willow Smith, and the Smiths were here but he wasn’t. You’ve never seen the likes of this, people thinking he was here,” added Glavey.
The staff are wary of distinguishing between their high profile and low profile guests, but that didn’t make it less suspicious when, at breakfast the following morning, a man hid at the corner table with a baseball cap on. To this writer’s knowledge, only rock stars wore baseball caps to breakfast.
“We should just go up and tell them we love their music,” my breakfast companion suggested.
“But what if they’re movie stars?” I asked.
The man was sitting with someone else, who was obstructed by a pillar with only a muscled arm and a leather jacket showing.
Lo and behold, it was Jason Momoa (in all his giant, beautiful Jason Momoa-ness) who played Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones, rumoured to return in the seventh season. Like we said: Ireland is all about the quintessential GoT experience.
DID YOU KNOW?
Early last year, the Dark Hedges, where GoT had filmed (now open for visitors), was hit by a storm. It left visible gaps between trees as a couple had fell, but the wood was used to create 10 stunningly intricate doors that have now been used in pubs across the country. This includes the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy.
