HBO’s immensely popular fantasy series Game of Thrones is mostly set in the fictitious continent of Westeros, which includes locations such as King’s Landing, the palace of Dorne and the castle of Winterfell. For fans of the show, these are as good as real places, populated by brave warriors, crooked rulers and scheming courtiers. Like The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the locations that have been used for the television series have become huge tourist attractions. These include Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia and Malta.
The final season of the fantasy series based on George RR Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice novels will be premiered on April 14 on Star World and Hotstar. The six-episode eighth season will see the major characters, including Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Arya Starka (Maisie Williams), Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Sansa Starka (Sophie Turner) battle against the White Walkers zombie army. The previous seasons are being streamed on Hotstar.
The final season had a star-studded red-carpet premiere in New York City last week. The latest teaser hints at the doom and destruction that will follow the Battle of Winterfell.
Numerous webpages are dedicated to GoT arcania, and these include Twitter accounts that track the locations. Game of Thrones_Traveller, who goes by the pseudonym Direwolf Dragon, is one such handle, which takes painstaking efforts to explore the locations featured in the show. The fan behind the handle has travelled extensively across Northern Ireland, Spain and Croatia to bring alive the locations, including King’s Landing, Water Gardens and the House of Undying.
The bridge where Jaime and Brienne fight, located near Shanes Castle, Northern Ireland pic.twitter.com/YSE9khmJpl
— GameOfThrones_Traveller (@Direwolf_Dragon) November 1, 2018
Most of the tweets include a picture of the Twitter user at the location, with a one-line explanation of the scene or moment that was filmed there.
Was very excited to finally see Tollymore forest,which plays host to the episode 1 scene with the Starks finding the Direwolves. pic.twitter.com/PiGgC8x2xM
— GameOfThrones_Traveller (@Direwolf_Dragon) September 25, 2018
The scene of Arya's blind begging in Braavos, located in beautiful Girona,Spain. #gameofthrones #JuegoDeTronos pic.twitter.com/rDJwko9yKx
— GameOfThrones_Traveller (@Direwolf_Dragon) July 13, 2018
GoTlike Locations is another handle that contains snapshots of the locations juxtaposed with sequences from the show.
This place at Skaftá river near Kirkjubæjarklaustur seems to be a new location in Iceland for S8. Perspective and focal distance differ, but landscape similarities with the promo pic are remarkable. Pic 3 is what Jon+Dany were looking at. More info here:https://t.co/cQ8M1RtcA3 pic.twitter.com/vRKcccqcGc
— GoTlike Locations (@GoTlikeLocation) March 28, 2019
An afternoon at Riverrun: This jetty by the river Quoile, near Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, was built by HBO for the Hoster Tully funeral scene in S3E3. It was later modified and is used as a fishing stand nowadays. pic.twitter.com/0qw86eQAP3
— GoTlike Locations (@GoTlikeLocation) February 23, 2019
Castle Black, the Iron Bank of Braavos, the North Wall and Meereen (shot at the Klis fortress in Croatia) are among the locations that are featured in the Twitter account.
Due to CGI, set alterations and crane perspectives it can be hard to find the exact spot of a scene on locations. Striking wall structures like here at Klis fortress can be helpful. At first I was looking for the stairs Dany & co were using, but those were only added for filming. pic.twitter.com/lS9naY0rsJ
— GoTlike Locations (@GoTlikeLocation) August 18, 2018
Irish Thrones is a Twitter handle dedicated to the sequences shot in Northern Ireland. A bulk of the final season was also reportedly shot in Iceland.
Happy St.Patricks Day. The location in this pic is Slemish and the Shillanavogy Valley, the very FIRST Irish home of Saint Patrick himself! Used in #Gameofthrones as the Dothraki Sea! #StPatricksDay #LáFhéilePádraig #Ireland @GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/w9l85RyUD7
— Irish Thrones (@IrishThrones) March 17, 2018
The page also has a YouTube channel, which has footage of the locations, including Corbet-Banbridge, an Irish village often used to depict Riverrun, the ancestral castle of House Tully.
The fan-page Game of Thrones Wiki also has an exhaustively detailed list of locations. The objective of the page is to “aid fans who may be seeking out the Game of Thrones filming locations as tourist destinations”, according to its description.
The page details every possible interior and exterior location, along with the coordinates.
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