The last time I visited Northern Ireland was in 2019.   Worldcon was in Dublin that year, and a week later there was Titancon up in Belfast, a small regional that a number of the members of the Brotherhood Without Banners helped put on.  There was no way we were going to miss that.   So we hopped in a car and headed north, from Dublin to Belfast.

We enjoyed ourselves at Titancon, but Belfast had other attractions as well… one of them being the Paint Hall, where the big ships were painted in the heydey of the old Harland & Wolff shipyards, where the Titanic was built (along with hundreds of ships that did not sink, as our Irish friends like to point out).   The shipyards were long closed, but the Paint Hall was such a huge space that HBO was able to convert it into one of the largest sound stages in Europe (actually, four stages, if I recall correctly).  Most of the interiors of GAME OF THRONES were shot there.  That was where our throne room was, and the Iron Throne.   Those sets had been struck when GOT wrapped, of course, but new sets had gone up in their places, interiors for Casterly Rock and Winterfell designed for  BLOODMOON, the Jane Goldman pilot that had just wrapped.  Interiors for Winterfell and Casterly Rock, as they might have looked thousands of years before The War of the Five Kings ,  occupied much of the Paint Hall, and we were able to wander though them.  That was pretty cool.. but even cooler, there was a GOT museum nearby, not far from the Titanic museum, and we visited that too.  Just a few rooms, with a display of costumes and armor, some great dragon skull, an Iron Throne, and a wall of faces straight from the House of Black and White (well, kinda sorta).

That was 2019, though.    There have been a lot of changes since then, and none more than the GAME OF THRONES display.  It’s not small any longer, and it’s not in the Titanic Quarter.   There’s a whole new GOT Studio Tour outside of Belfast in a own called Banbridge, inside an old Irish linen mill.  A big, big, building, maybe larger than the Paint Hall itself, filled with room after room of props, costumes, dioramas, an Iron Throne, another wall of faces even bigger than the first one.   And dragon skulls, of course.  Cannot forget the dragons.  There’s a restaurant as well, and a big parking lot where the tourist buses come and go, and… oh, a gift shop with all sorts of GOT merc, a lot of which even I had never seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Caq728rnE

We spent half the day there, wandering from room to room while oohing and aahing, and talking with the staff, some of whom seemed to know more about Westeros than I do.   A warm and friendly crew, they were so welcoming to all the visitors, Starks, Lannisters, and White Walkers alike.   We could easily have stayed longer, but we had other places to go and people to see.  But if your own travels take you to Ireland, don’t make the same mistake; there’s a lot to see, so leave yourself time to see it all.

Here are a few more glimpses, the pix we shot ourselves.

 

 

 

 

It is one thing to watch a television series at home and admire the look of it… but the studio tour really brings home the incredible amount of care that went into making it… the blood and sweat and craft, the hours and days of dedication, labor, and love that brought Westeros to life.   GAME OF THRONES filmed all over the world, in Scotland, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Spain, and Croatia… and in Northern Ireland most of all… but I live in New Mexico, and while I did visit the shoots a number of times during the show’s run, it was not nearly enough.   I am so pleased that we now have such a magnificent museum, so GOT fans from all over the world can experience a taste of what was.

It’s the next best thing to visiting Westeros.

 

Current Mood: pleased