Visitors to Ireland can visit castles like these and others featured in the hit show “Game of Thrones” (Photography courtesy of Ireland’s Blue Book)
Before HBO’s popular series “Game of Thrones” concludes with its final TV season in 2019, fans can visit many of the places where the blockbuster’s action takes place during the summer of 2018 in Northern Ireland and similar setting throughout the Emerald Isle.
The fantasy series, which premiered in 2011, details conflicts in the realm, fantastical kingdoms, noble families, dynasties, ancient creatures and the throne. Along with the horsemen and dragons, don’t forget the sex, violence and nudity!
The award-winning series is mainly shot in Northern Ireland making use of its dramatic and stark landscapes, castles, and windswept seascapes. A new tour will not only allow people to see those locations but also to participate in an active collection of memories and personal accounts of locals who have “Game of Thrones” stories to share. “Journey to Winterfell,” an eight-day, multi-sport, cultural immersion and historical hiking journey will lead participants to many of the iconic set locations.
“Throners,” which are active aficionados akin to the “Star Trek” “Trekkies,” will, throughout the journey, collect “stamps” to place on their “Game of Thrones passports.” By the end of their journey they will have 10 stamps representing film sites visited during their real-life expedition into the imaginary July 1-8.
After flying to into Dublin, the tour stops first in Downpatrick to visit the grave of St. Patrick, the English slave who became Ireland’s patron saint by bringing Catholicism to the Emerald Isle and, legend has it, driving off all the snakes. The action begins next with an immersion in archery at the original film set in make-believe “Winterfell.” It’s at Castle Ward, an 18th century gothic mansion and estate on the waters of Strangford Lough originally owned by the Earls of Kildare.
Three pub stops will then precede a night in Enniskeen which, at the foot of the Mountains of Mourne, will make a good starting point for the next day’s seven-mile hike along an old smuggling route.
The tour intends to ease the modern world away with subsequent pilgrimages to Carrickfergus Castle, circa 1177, on the coast; and Ballygalley Hotel, which, built in 1625, is the oldest, continuously inhabited castle in Ireland. Very few tourists visit Northern Ireland’s “Causeway Coast” beyond Belfast without spy “Giants Causeway,” a natural phenomenon of hexagonal basalt columns created a millennia ago leading into the sea with its’ own legendary myth – a pathway to Scotland for the giant Finn McCool. Carrick A Rede, a rope bridge over the ocean between two cliffs is nearby the for daring (it’s safe.) Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery is in the area, as is Royal Portrush Golf Club, which will, for the first time since 1951, bring the British Open Championship back to Northern Ireland in 2019.
Older than the mythology of the game Throners are playing here is the prehistoric (3,200BC) burial chamber at Newgrange, predating Stonehenge. Nearby is Ireland’s oldest community, Drogheda, settled before the 12th century. Another urban center Throners will visit is Belfast, birthplace of the doomed ocean liner Titanic, where a detailed museum examines its’ ill-fated voyage.
The per-person, double occupancy rate of $3,998 includes all meals, first-aid certified guides, land transportation, luggage service, gratuities, and national park entrance and permit fees.
For details see: https://www.austinadventures.com/packages/ireland-game-thrones.
For a solo storybook stay without being on a guided tour, Barberstown Castle, in Kildare, 30-minutes outside Dublin, offers hotel guests 4-star luxuries nobody who stayed in the castle when it was built in the 13th century could have dreamed of. The castle hotel and Irish country house with Elizabethan and Victorian extensions are surrounded by 20 acres of gardens and have been cared for and preserved by various owners including music star Eric Clapton, who owned Barbertown from 1979 until 1087. The property, with 55 guest rooms, currently displays the comforts of millions of dollars in redevelopment. A tunnel and “priest hole” were discovered during renovations in 1996. It’s a photogenic spot for “Princess Brides” to marry their “Prince Charmings.”
Over 700 years old, and operating as a hotel since 1971, Barberstown Castle is a sister design development to nearby Straffan House at the K Club, which hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup Matches pitting star players such as Ireland’s Padraig Harrington on the European team against a squad featuring the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on a golf course designed by the Arnold Palmer, who was known as “The King.”
For information or to book, visit https://www.irelands-blue-book.e/ which offers other historical Irish lodging options throughout Ireland.
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Visitors to Ireland can visit castles like these and others featured in the hit show “Game of Thrones” (Photography courtesy of Ireland’s Blue Book)
Before HBO’s popular series “Game of Thrones” concludes with its final TV season in 2019, fans can visit many of the places where the blockbuster’s action takes place during the summer of 2018 in Northern Ireland and similar setting throughout the Emerald Isle.
The fantasy series, which premiered in 2011, details conflicts in the realm, fantastical kingdoms, noble families, dynasties, ancient creatures and the throne. Along with the horsemen and dragons, don’t forget the sex, violence and nudity!
The award-winning series is mainly shot in Northern Ireland making use of its dramatic and stark landscapes, castles, and windswept seascapes. A new tour will not only allow people to see those locations but also to participate in an active collection of memories and personal accounts of locals who have “Game of Thrones” stories to share. “Journey to Winterfell,” an eight-day, multi-sport, cultural immersion and historical hiking journey will lead participants to many of the iconic set locations.
“Throners,” which are active aficionados akin to the “Star Trek” “Trekkies,” will, throughout the journey, collect “stamps” to place on their “Game of Thrones passports.” By the end of their journey they will have 10 stamps representing film sites visited during their real-life expedition into the imaginary July 1-8.
After flying to into Dublin, the tour stops first in Downpatrick to visit the grave of St. Patrick, the English slave who became Ireland’s patron saint by bringing Catholicism to the Emerald Isle and, legend has it, driving off all the snakes. The action begins next with an immersion in archery at the original film set in make-believe “Winterfell.” It’s at Castle Ward, an 18th century gothic mansion and estate on the waters of Strangford Lough originally owned by the Earls of Kildare.
Three pub stops will then precede a night in Enniskeen which, at the foot of the Mountains of Mourne, will make a good starting point for the next day’s seven-mile hike along an old smuggling route.
The tour intends to ease the modern world away with subsequent pilgrimages to Carrickfergus Castle, circa 1177, on the coast; and Ballygalley Hotel, which, built in 1625, is the oldest, continuously inhabited castle in Ireland. Very few tourists visit Northern Ireland’s “Causeway Coast” beyond Belfast without spy “Giants Causeway,” a natural phenomenon of hexagonal basalt columns created a millennia ago leading into the sea with its’ own legendary myth – a pathway to Scotland for the giant Finn McCool. Carrick A Rede, a rope bridge over the ocean between two cliffs is nearby the for daring (it’s safe.) Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery is in the area, as is Royal Portrush Golf Club, which will, for the first time since 1951, bring the British Open Championship back to Northern Ireland in 2019.
Older than the mythology of the game Throners are playing here is the prehistoric (3,200BC) burial chamber at Newgrange, predating Stonehenge. Nearby is Ireland’s oldest community, Drogheda, settled before the 12th century. Another urban center Throners will visit is Belfast, birthplace of the doomed ocean liner Titanic, where a detailed museum examines its’ ill-fated voyage.
The per-person, double occupancy rate of $3,998 includes all meals, first-aid certified guides, land transportation, luggage service, gratuities, and national park entrance and permit fees.
For details see: https://www.austinadventures.com/packages/ireland-game-thrones.
For a solo storybook stay without being on a guided tour, Barberstown Castle, in Kildare, 30-minutes outside Dublin, offers hotel guests 4-star luxuries nobody who stayed in the castle when it was built in the 13th century could have dreamed of. The castle hotel and Irish country house with Elizabethan and Victorian extensions are surrounded by 20 acres of gardens and have been cared for and preserved by various owners including music star Eric Clapton, who owned Barbertown from 1979 until 1087. The property, with 55 guest rooms, currently displays the comforts of millions of dollars in redevelopment. A tunnel and “priest hole” were discovered during renovations in 1996. It’s a photogenic spot for “Princess Brides” to marry their “Prince Charmings.”
Over 700 years old, and operating as a hotel since 1971, Barberstown Castle is a sister design development to nearby Straffan House at the K Club, which hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup Matches pitting star players such as Ireland’s Padraig Harrington on the European team against a squad featuring the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on a golf course designed by the Arnold Palmer, who was known as “The King.”
For information or to book, visit https://www.irelands-blue-book.e/ which offers other historical Irish lodging options throughout Ireland.
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