Northern Ireland or Westeros?
Hello again!
Titanic Belfast
During the last week of January I had some time off from my host family. They were headed to Aelderholt, in the province Drenthe, for a family weekend. I was invited, but I chose to opt out and travel instead.
I didn’t plan on flying to Belfast, but I was searching flight deals for that weekend and Belfast was one of the cheaper options. I had never been to any part of Ireland before, and I still had leftover pounds from my London adventure. The main thing I knew about Belfast was that it was the filming location for many scenes in Game of Thrones (London trip with Harry Potter and now this? I’m sensing a theme…). So without much planning, I found myself on a flight to Northern Ireland for a quick weekend trip.
The flight was a little over an hour, so I still had plenty of time to explore once I landed, took a bus to the city and checked into my hostel. I spent the afternoon at the Ulster Museum and the botanical gardens. Ulster is a great place to learn about the history of Northern Ireland, and admission is free.
The next day I did a two-hour free walking tour (say it with me, always do the free walking tour). Belfast is a relatively small city and it’s easy to get around by walking. It started at City Hall and just FYI the city hall gives guided tours every day, no tickets needed. Around the city hall is the Titanic memorial with the names of all the deceased passengers. We also saw the Linen Hall Library, founded in 1788 and the oldest library in the city. I actually went back later to explore the inside, it’s very cute and bigger than it looks!
Am I excited because he was on GOT or because I got to pet a dog?? We may never know.
I also did the Belfast Titanic museum that day. Titanic was built in the city docks before her doomed maiden voyage. The museum covers the history of the docks, their importance to Belfast, how Titanic was built, the sinking and the ocean remains. The best part was at the end, when they showed footage from divers exploring the shipwreck. They have a place on the floor where you can walk over an image of the shipwreck and see what it looks like from above.
Like I said earlier, Belfast was a filming location for Game of Thrones. I wanted a way to explore the areas outside of the city and I was already a fan of bus tours after my time in Scotland. I found two day trip tours with this company, and I would highly recommend them. I had a great time on both tours, but if you’re in Belfast and looking for something different, there are plenty of GOT tour companies to choose from. If you’re not a fan of the GOT show, that’s okay. A lot of the places I went have a lot more to them than being used for filming.
My GOT tour guide Andrew, he even has his own meme after working on the show!
I did the Winterfell Trek tour first. It took us to Castle Ward, the filming location used for Winterfell in the show. The castle was built in the 18th century and is more than just a tourist stop for GOT fans. It also has several hiking trails around it, leading to other medieval structures and beautiful views. The area around the castle is so beautiful, GOT went back and filmed more scenes from other seasons in that area.
Andrew showing us where they filmed a scene in GOT. These pictures helped us place the scene.
We visited Inch Abbey, the ruins of a 12th century monastery that was used as the filming location for the Northern houses to declare Robb Stark the king in the north, and Tollymore Forest. A large park used as a filming location for multiple movies and tv series, not just GOT. Our tour guide was Andrew, and he had worked as an extra for the show. He is now an extra on the show vikings. He was a great tour guide, answered all of our weird filming questions and told really funny stories about the cast (hello Andrew!). Andrew still talks to friends that he made on the show, and introduced us to other extras, including the dog that played Robb Stark’s direwolf Grey Wind in season 1!
The next day I did the Iron Islands, Giant’s Causeway & Rope Bridge tour with the same company. My tour guide for that day also worked as an extra on GOT for the earlier seasons. He was an archer for Stannis Baretheon in season two. Like the name suggests, this tour included visits to places not used in GOT, such as Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge.
Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. I CROSSED THAT
The rope bridge links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede and is almost 100 feet above the rocky water. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen (sorry mom for the 100s of pictures now in the icloud), and I’m really happy we were given so much time to not only cross it, but explore the area around it. We went to the Giant’s Causeway after lunch, a UNESCO World Heritage site formed about 50-60 million years ago. It’s a geological marvel of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns and it was incredible to see. To get there you can either take the shuttle (1 pound) or walk about twenty minutes from the welcome center. I walked down to see it, which was great because of the views, but I recommend taking the shuttle bus back up, it’s all uphill.
Giant’s Causeway
We ended our tour at the dark hedges, a place that was well known before it was used as the King’s Road on GOT. I really enjoyed my time in Belfast, and I would like another opportunity to explore more of Northern Ireland. I got really lucky during my weekend, weather wise. I would have hated to cross that tiny rope bridge during a windy day or a thunderstorm. All in all, not bad for a spontaneous trip planned at the last minute. One of my goals this year is to also visit Dublin and explore Ireland (Coronavirus laughs in the distance, but more on that later…). Below is some more pictures of my Belfast adventure.
Stay safe everyone!
The outside of Cushendun Caves, where Melisandre gives birth to a dark spirit and Jaimie and Euron have their final fight.
The beach at Ballintoy Harbor, used for the Iron Islands Scenes
Giant’s Causeway
House Stark WHOMST
Yes, this is very nerdy
The dark hedges
Winterfell (before all the CGI)
Another pic of the rope bridge before I crossed back.
