Downhill Beach, The Mourne Mountains and The Dark Hedges in Northern Island
Thanks to its golden-pink sands stretching way out towards Magilligan Point, Downhill Beach in County Londonderry near the town of Coleraine, is one of the longest beaches in Ireland. With the beautiful circular Mussenden Temple standing on the cliffs of Castlerock, the views from here of counties Donegal Coast and Antrim are simply breathtaking. No wonder then, that it was chosen to serve as the place where the seven old Gods of Westeros on Dragonstone were burnt in Game Of Thrones ’ second season. The Mourne Mountains — the granite massifs of County Down — were one of the first visuals seen in the series’ pilot episode, used as the entrance to the city of Vaes Dothrak, filmed at Sandy Brae with Mt. Slievemageogh looming large in the background. And with its rather eerie looking tunnel of gnarly beech trees, The Dark Hedges in County Antrim was the perfect backdrop for the King’s Road scene in season two when Arya Stark escapes via this path from her enemies.
Dubrovnik and Lokrum Island in Croatia
Fast gaining a strong foothold for itself as a hot new travel destination in central Europe, Croatia now has another reason to boast about. The walled seaside city of Dubrovnik was where a sizeable chunk of season two was filmed, more notably in the precincts of the fortresses of Minceta and Bokar. To take things a little further, there even is a three-hour Game Of Thrones Walking Tour of Dubrovnik that winds its way towards locations like the UNESCO-listed Old Town and Lovrijenac Fortress from where one can climb the city walls to look out over Blackwater Bay. The island of Lokrum in the Adriatic Sea (merely 600 m from Dubrovnik) was depicted as Qarth with its monastery and well-manicured botanical gardens standing in for the eerie ‘Garden of Bones’.
Mdina and Gozo in Malta
Who would have thought this tiny nation suspended in the Mediterranean Sea, near Sicily would play such an important role, serving as the location for some very important scenes. Well, to begin with, Malta’s 1,000 year old ancient capital of Mdina stands in for another (albeit fictional) capital — King’s Landing, the capital of the Westeros empire. And thanks to Mdina being walled in from all sides, its main town gate was the portal through which the character Eddard “Ned” Stark arrives for the Tourney of the Hand. The Azure Window, the natural limestone rock formation on the island of Gozo, which, after centuries of erosion, has taken on the appearance of an arc, was the setting for the marriage of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo that takes place in the first season.
Essaouira, Aït Benhaddou and Ouarzazate in Morocco
The north African country of Morocco has been a firm favourite of Hollywood, with scores of movies having been filmed on its rugged, often lunar-like terrain. And so, it should come as no great surprise then that the locales of the seaside town of Essaouira feature prominently in the series’ latest third season, doubling up as the slave-trading town of Astapor. This is the final pit stop on Danaerys Targaryen’s perilous journey along the land of Essos where she sets up her army of the Unsullied. Furthermore, the Berber tribal village of Aït Benhaddou was also shown as another salve city — Yunkai. While a mere 32 km away, the Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate housed the sets for filming the interiors of the aforementioned slave cities.
Svínafellsjökull and Lake Myvatn in Iceland
Abutting Iceland’s mighty Vatnajökull glacier, the Svínafellsjökull glacier that forms part of the Skaftafell National Park in the south-east of the country has served as one of the main filming locations of the series in seasons two and three. With its vertiginous cliff-face and unique blue ice, this calving glacier forms the backdrop of the ‘Wintry Beyond the Wall’ scenes when Jon Snow leaves the wall and ventures into White Walker territory. In the same season, depicted as the land of Wildings, the rugged Lake Myvatn in the north was also featured. And in particular the Grjotagja Lava Cave — with its geothermal spring — was where the romance blossomed between Snow and the Free Folk clan member Ygritte.
