For last saturday we booked a „Game of Thrones“ themed tour across Northern Ireland. The tour lasted 9 and a half hours we got to see a lot from the coastline and the giants causeway was also included. There were 6 stops during the tour.
[minor spoilers]
The Stairs
Our first stop was a small town. We got to use the toilets and buy some coffee. The harbour of the town was used to film a scene where Arya, a character of the show, is wounded and crawls out of the Water.
The Cave
Next we visited a Cave at the coast. The cave is known for a Scene where Davos brings Melisandre to it and she summons the shadow deamon. If you walk through the cave you end up at a small opening with acces to the beach. In Season 8 they filmed the Jaime and Euron battle in this part.
Rope Bridge
The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was the most stunning part of the tour. It was a ~15 meters long bridge at the coast which led to a small island. To get there we needed to walk a kilometer along the coast. The ticket for the Bridge was already included in the price of the tour. The coast was very beautiful and exactly what I imagined to see here in Ireland.
Iron Island harbour
Our next stop was Ballintoy Harbour wich is around 400 years old. In the show, its the harbour from the iron islands. Also the beach next to it was used for many scenes too. Our tour guide showed us a printed out picture of the show. For filming, they removed the metalbar fences, edited the cars out and put a big black blanket over a too modern looking building.
Before we went to the Giants Causeway, we were given some coats and swords to play around with and take picures. This was a bit nerdy but I still enjoyed it.
Giants Causeway
The most iconic sight in Northern Ireland. Sadly, this was the most disappointing part of the tour for me. This place has become an absolute hotspot for tourism. It was totally overcrowded and it was very hard to take a picture without other people on it. The stones were still quite cool to see but looked not as good as on the photos I’ve seen earlier on the internet.
Dark Hedges
Our last stop for the day were the dark hedges. This is an avenue with 300 years old trees. These trees have a very special look because their branches are twisted. What suprised me is that they look way taller than in the pictures on the internet. This is the only stop where you need to hope for bad weather because this looks a lot cooler. Sadly this spot was also overrun by tourists and it wasn’t possible to take some good photos.
Conclusion
The tour was extremely fun and absolutely worth the money. There were a lot of positive things that weren’t even mentioned on their website. For example they gave away free water and ponchos during the stops. Furthermore every tour guide was involved in the show and they have a lot of knowledge about how it was filmed and some fun storys to tell. Everyone who wants to see the landscape of the country and/or is a Game of Thrones fan should take the tour. If you’re interested you can click the link below.