When my husband, in-laws, and I arrived in Northern Ireland, family asked what we had in mind to do while we were around. I had seen a fair amount of the tourist sites last time I was in Northern Ireland, so I hadn’t been thinking of anything in specific. My husband’s uncle mentioned that there were filming locations for Game of Thrones around the area. And when I saw some of the pictures of the locations, I agreed right away.
Now, I don’t watch Game of Thrones and have seen one very confusing episode that was in the middle of season 2. Our friends tried to explain it, but overall I was lost. But if there is one thing I have learned about travel this past year, it’s that most TV shows and films go to great effort to find impeccable locations and make mention of authentic references much like NCIS: New Orleans mentioning that restaurant gem, Adolfo’s–heavenly food. I digress.
There are around ten filming locations listed on the Discover Northern Ireland website. Only about 6 locations are in the north near us. A couple of locations we didn’t get to see because of the weather conditions and in the interest of conserving daylight to see other sites .
We started by heading up Bishop’s Road. To get to our first location, we drove along the very beautiful and scenic road that the Bishop used to drive to get to his castle. Just remember cameras never do the colors justice.
The point of land is Magilligan Point where military trains. The land across the strait is southern Ireland. Ireland actually goes further north than Northern Ireland.
Games of Thrones sea god statue, the Manannán Mac Lir overlooking Lough Foyle
The day after we saw it, BBC reported it stolen. Someone had to use angle grinders to get it out. Very sad, but I’m glad we got to see it before it disappeared!
Each location point will be a different blog post so I don’t overload you with pictures all at one time. First stop: Downhill Beach.
