A Trip to Winterfell in Ireland

You can’t go to Ireland and not tour the Game of Throne Winterfell scenes! So, our second day of our trip to Ireland was a tour of Winterfell in Ireland and other Game of Throne scenes.

My niece and I started off our day early with a 20 minute walk to the meeting point. This included a quick stop for cafe latte and a scones to go. We arrived at our meeting point with plenty of time to sit down and eat before the tour bus arrived.

Tollymore Forest Park

Our tour bus took us up into Northern Ireland to the Tollymore Forest Park where several early scenes were filmed. Once at the park, our guide handed out wool capes finished with faux fur collars and fastened with leather straps. The capes set the scene for the tour!

Then off we went hiking along walkways surrounded by trees and floral landscaping. We passed through a medieval looking stone archway and then into a forest. The stone and gravel walkway changed to a dirt path that took us further into the woods. Eventually, our guide led us off the path and into a more dense area until we came to a heavily wood alcove.

This wooded alcove was the sight of the first scene of Game of Thrones. The scene where the three rangers went north of The Wall to investigate the Wildlings in the Haunted Forest, also know as the Wildlings Massacre. The area was not obvious at first because the scene in the series was snowcovered. Ireland rarely gets snow so the scene was set with fake snow; a three week process! Keeping it enviromentally friendly, production covered the forest floor and bases of trees before setting up film equipment and laying the fake snow.

Walking down another trail, not too far away, we came to the sights where the Starks found the stag lying in the road and the dead direwolf, nearby. Our guide explained that they enhanced the direwolf scene by adding a bridge to the background. He also suggested that the rock and the way the direwolf lay across it, may have been some sort of symbolism.

An Irish Lunch at an Irish Pub

Our guide led us back through the woods taking us across a charming creek for pictures, and then back to our bus. We took a short bus ride to the seaside town of Strangford for lunch at the irish pub, The Lobster Pot restaurant. My neice and I enjoyed Lobster Bisque soup and fresh green salad.

Winterfell in Ireland

A few pictures of Strangford and back to the bus and a quick ride around the bay to Castleward. This was the main filming location of Winterfell in Ireland. It is also the sight of the medieval tower, Audley’s Castle and several other scenes from the film.

The historic Castleward farmyard was the site of Winterfell. Production added a massive secondary tower and gate to transform the entrance. Further tranformation took place inside the couryard with additional buildings, extensions, and props making the farmyard almost unrecognizable.

Only slightly altered, Audley’s Castle was used in several entirely different scenes in the series. Audley’s Castle was used as the somewhat dipilitated, Tower of Joy, where Ned Stark finds his sister, Lyanna, shortly after Robert Baratheon took the throne. It was also used as the Twin Towers of the House of Frey and the backdrop of Robb Stark’s camp where he met Talisa, and later imprisoned Alton Lannister.

We were guided through other areas of Castleward land to view other scenes. The scene of where Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth find the three tavern girls hanging from a tree is was filmed in the area, as well as, the tree where King Robb Stark and Tulisa spoke their wedding vows.

Inch Abby

The final stop in the tour took us to the ruins of Inch Abby, where we all received swords (Fake of course!) and posed for pictures. This beautiful 12th century Cistercian monastery ruins were used in a few scenes. Lady Catelyn Stark when she hears of the execution of her husband Ned and vows revenge. In the same episode, Robb Star is crowned King in the North in Inch Abby.

After we returned our capes and swords, we took the bus back to Dublin. On the way back we were entertained with a few videos. Coldplay’s Game of Thrones: The Musical, a comedy, and the first episode of Game of Thrones was a great way to end the day.

An End of Winterfell in Ireland

The trip concluded at the original pick-up site. My niece and I made the walk back to our hotel with a short stop for dinner along the way. It was late in the day and we were worn out from all the walking, so went straight to bed to rest up for our Moher Tour.