One of the benefits of Game of Thrones, besides enjoying the story, has been discovering and exploring the beautiful locations featured throughout the show. Countries such as Northern Ireland, Croatia, Morocco, Spain, and more have been featured in the show, and seen tourism boost as a result of the Game of Thrones influence.
Northern Ireland has been the primary home of the show for all six seasons, with Titanic Studios in Belfast, Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge and countless on-site locations across the country hosting filming over the years. The Dark Hedges, a historic row of distinctive trees in County Antrim, appeared in the season 2 premiere of GoT and made the news in January when several of the trees fell in a storm.
Now, Tourism Ireland is unrolling two campaigns throughout Northern Ireland, unveiling Game of Thrones stamps and a very cool use of those fallen trees.
There will be a Game of Thrones stamp for every new episode this season, released exclusively in Northern Ireland, so if you’re a philatelist and a fantasy nerd, you’re in luck. The first stamp to be released features House Stark:
You’ve got mail – from #Westeros! Letters sent in Northern Ireland can use our #GameofThrones stamp to mark season 6 pic.twitter.com/9F0djIVFjU
— Tourism Ireland (@TourismIreland) April 25, 2016
The next features their enemy in the North, House Bolton. Perfect postage if you have Pink Letters that need sending:
And here's our brand new (week 2) #GameofThrones stamp pic.twitter.com/i7FSj1vC15
— Tourism Ireland (@TourismIreland) May 2, 2016
As for the fallen trees of the Dark Hedges, they’ll find new life being reshaped into Doors of Thrones. The trees will become a set of 10 carved doors placed across Northern Ireland.
As they explain on Ireland.com:
Each door has been intricately designed to represent a different Game of Thrones® episode. Using iconic symbols and key scenes from the show, the doors work together to tell the tale of Season 6.
The doors will be on display in different pubs, cafes and inns across Northern Ireland, and after every episode a new location revealed. Each one will be situated near an iconic filming location – so if you come across a door, you’ll know you’re in Game of Thrones® territory.
The video provides a sneak peek at the first door:
Here’s a look at the intricate work on the Bolton-themed second door, placed in Portaferry, Northern Ireland:
One of these days, I really have to cross the ocean because everything over there looks ridiculously beautiful, and skipping around pubs looking at Thrones-themed items is right up my alley.
Ho-doors
Surprised it took them so long! 6 seasons for an obvious cash in!
HODOR!
I can do without flayed man door. But it would have been kind of cool to have some firewood from the Kings Road.
I hope they have a Ho-door
I’ll get me coat
It is a huge dream/goal of mine to visit NI during a shooting year. I’m going to need to bolster up my savings to make it! Those doors take amazing skill and artistry. Wow.
Season 6 Episode 5 – The Door
on IMDB, Just saying
What a great way to use those fallen iconic trees! My next vacation is definitely going to Northern Ireland and doing a GoT tour and visiting pubs in Belfast, try to see as much as possible GoT related! I would really love to get my hands on those stamps, but didn’t see any way us lowly people in the US can get their hands on them? Did I miss it or is there no way to get them? If not, that is a big bummer! Good job Sue on an article about very interesting GoT related items, really enjoy reading about everything!
HaHaHa!!!
If they have those designs programmed and automated for manufacture they should be making them for public sale. I don’t need special trees…they look awesome and would look even better in my house!
The stamps are fantastic and the doors, wow. Northern Ireland is a beautiful and friendly little slice, highly rec. a visit.
Thats just amazing work on the doors and what a GREAT IDEA to make them GoT themed. I absolutely LOVE this! The stamps are so cool… how can I get some? Any of my NI friends on here willing to send me one each if I pay for them???
If you go let me know.. I would love to go as well… 😉
That sounds great.. am looking to build a home in the next year and would die to have them as my front doors… HOUSE STARK!!
Sue, I’m with you. My grandfather was from Ireland came to US when he was a boy, his wife (my grandmother) was from Scotland. My paternal grandparents were from London. I really need to get to the British Isles:(
Those doors are beautiful. Great use for those iconic trees that fell.
Both things very cool. Way to grab on and embrace GoT, N. Ireland!!
Someone will most likely be selling the stamps on Ebay or other online sites.
Ice Spider,
The trip is definitely on my list, and if it’s during filming…all the better. If anyone plans a trip, let the rest of us know in case we are visiting at the same time. It would be a shame to be drinking in the same pub as another WoWer and not know that they’re there. I’d be happy to buy them a pint!
Can’t wait to see how the other doors turn out. Very cool
I’ve visited the Dark Hedges two weeks ago, it’s really beautiful. In fact, the whole country is awe inspiring. Thankfully, my tour guide was a GoT fan so he mentioned all the places where they filmed, and even threw out a couple of his own theories about what’s going to happen in S6.
Ice Spider,
And me too!! I think WOTW should put together a sponsored travel package deal for GoT fans from the US! Fans can fly together and do the tours together and stay in hotels together! OMG! That sounds amazing! Sue….?
Found a new recap/review of S6E2 on Youtube. For whoever is compiling them for a thread, I’d recommend this one by Smoke Screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9FT1NLLd0
Dude was all kinds of excited about the episode.
Quit encouraging the Boltons!
Correction: Bolton
That’s a good point. That house is in a very precarious position. As far as we know, Neither Roose nor Ramsey have any living offspring (and I don’t think Ramsey has ever had any), legitimate or bastard.
I live on the coast of The Irish Sea and I’ve never been to the Iron Islands!! Lol, I mean Ireland ofc. It’s shameful really. The thought of hunting Throne doors n sampling the local vistas and ales has me smiling 🙂 I gots to get on this before the end of the year.
Oh wow… That is a very nice idea to turn the fallen trees into something so creative like that. The video gave me chills! Can’t wait to see them all complete! There has to be a “Red Wedding” door… If so I wonder which location would get to display it!
Sue,
I’ve been to Ireland four times. Each time was more amazing than the last. It’s not as expensive as one might think, and journey is one you’ll always remember. I cried each time I left (I’m a frequent traveler and Ireland has been the only place to do that to me.)
So get on a plane and get your craic on! 🙂
I have been lucky enough to go to Ireland. The entire of the island has the most beautiful scenery. Like many my family came from there. The doors are works of arts. I can’t wait to return for another visit. I’ll have to visit all the pubs featuring the doors on my next trip. By the way it’s a country that easy to fall in love with.
When do we start finding out filming schedules and such? When and where they are expected to be. It would be great to happen upon a filming area when they are there. It would just increase the odds to have a rough idea of their schedule.
Come to Titancon! http://www.titancon.com/
thremnir,
OMG! My people!!! 🙂
Rella,
Wow, I’d so go to that. Been to England, Scotland and Wales many times, only a few to Ireland. I need to correct that imbalance.
That would be awesome.. a group trip of GoT fans!! I LIKE IT
Well that would be amazing… what says you Sue?? lol…. 😉 Paaaaaaaalease?
I wanna go to Northern Ireland. I just need money and annual time from work. I would love to go and meet up at a pub with you guys and gals.
Those doors are breathtaking! Wow!
Never been to Northern Ireland, but the rest of Ireland stole my heart. I, too, have Irish roots on my mother’s side, so it was really easy to fall in love with the place. I’d love to go back, but…the bank account is not as flush as it was back then (dang college kids and their tuition payments). 😉
I loved London as well. I had a brief visit a couple of years ago, and would love to be able to spend some real time there. So jealous of all you Brits on here! Love to buy you all a pint sometime!
Those doors are fabulous. The artistry involved in this production continues to astonish me.
I would love to go on a Game of Thrones tour in Northern Ireland with other WotW fans! But I think I’ll wait until it’s all over so I can see everything possible. Lucky me, I have relatives in Dublin!
What a great thing to have done and use those fallen trees from the ‘Kings Road’ to make GoT themed doors and place them around various sites (hopefully in pubs!) near to where the show has been filmed.
Its just incredible what computer controlled machining can achieve these days? Not so long ago to carve out wood with designs like that would have been done with a hammer and chisel and taken months!
Although we take computer aided design and fabrication with a pinch of salt these days, you have to respect the skill and craftsmanship of those people from hundreds of years ago who produced works of art in stone masonry or wood carving such as seen in palaces, cathedrals and churches throughout Europe.
Lyanna_Targaryen,
They mostly take 5-axis-CNC-mill programming skills and artistry … and if you look at the last picture, those aren’t too hot, either. The milling marks left on the flayed man and the rest of the sigil are more than a bit rough, when it would have been just a matter of seconds to do just one final pass for smoothing them over.
I’m lucky enough to be from Ireland (the Republic of) and am almost blushing at all the lovely comments above! Shamefully though I have never made the trip North to actually tour the various GoT locations, those doors are a fantastic idea and have definitely encouraged me to plan a weekend away and locate each one!
Name of the music in the video? It sounds familiar.
I’m going to Ireland next month (August 2016), where are the doors located?
Pat,
Episode 1 – The Cuan Guest Inn, Strangford.
Episode 2 – Fiddler’s Green, Portaferry.
Episode 3 – Percy French Restaurant, Newcastle.
Episode 4 – Blakes of the Hollow, Enniskillen.
Episode 5 – Owens Bar, Limavady.
Episode 6 – The Fullerton Arms, Ballintoy.
Episode 7 – Gracehill House, Ballymoney.
Episode 8 – Mary McBrides, Cushendun.
Episode 9 – Ballygally Castle Hotel, Ballygally.
Episode 10 – The Dark Horse, Belfast.