Where is Game of Thrones filmed?

Have you ever wondered where Game of Thrones is filmed? It is one of the most popular TV series ever! And, if you're a super fan like me, you're probably wondering whether all of their amazing filming locations are real places. Good news, they are! And, even better news, you can visit a lot of them!

Game of Thrones is one of the largest television productions in history and every season's filming takes place on-location across multiple countries at the same time. So, where is the famous Winterfell? How far do I have to travel to see the beautiful King's Landing? Are you sure Dorne wasn't just built in a studio? How can the icy lands beyond the Wall not all be CGI? Let's find out!

Game of Thrones Locations in Northern Ireland

As well as Erasmus in Belfast being a fantastic, lively option for your year abroad studies, it is also the capital of one of the main location countries that was used to film Game of Thrones. There are six counties in Northern Ireland, five of which can be spotted throughout the seasons of Game of Thrones.

Paint Hall Studios, Belfast

This is the place where, from season 1 to season 8, some of the most iconic Game of Thrones sets were brought to life, such as The Red Keep, The Iron Throne and The Great Sept of Baelor.

Linen Mill Studios, Banbridge

This second Irish studio is another major location for filming Game of Thrones interior scenes. It has the green screen studio that contains the full ship set that the TV series uses. The exterior sets for Harrenhal were built here.

Fun fact: to avoid the enormous expense that building different ships to film all of the various nautical scenes, the studio has one ship set that is redressed by the crew to portray each vessel it needs to.

They didn't just use the studios, the natural beauty of Northern Ireland was the backdrop for many of the most memorable scenes of Game of Thrones. Here are some of the areas super fans should direct themselves to:

County Antrim

• Magheramorne Quarry - site of the full Castle Black set, several walls of King's Landing shown during the Battle of the Blackwater, and the full Hardhome set.

• Ballintoy Harbour - used for Pyke, part of the Iron Islands and Lordsport harbor.

• Cushendun Caves - This is the cave where Melisandre goes into labour and gives birth to a strange shadowy creature.

Castle Ward, County Down

County Down

• Tollymore Forest Park - A Night's Watch scout group is attacked by some White Walkers here in the Prologue scene of Season 1. It was also here that the Stark children come across six direwolf pups.

• Castle Ward - This was one of the key locations for filming the whole TV series, featuring Audley's Castle. Used for Winterfell exteriors and general military encampments filming, e. g. the Lannister and the Stark army camps, as well as being the set for the Twins, which is the seat of House Frey.

• Saintfield Estates - The Rowallane Gardens were used for the sacred Winterfell Godswood filming location.

• Myra Castle - The Dreadfort's exteriors, which is the home of House Bolton.

• Sandy Brae, Kilkeel - The location of the Dothraki Sea grasslands, Vaes Dothrak. You can see the Mother of Mountains that appears in the background of the city. It’s in fact one of the nearby Mourne Mountains.

County Armagh is home to Gosford Castle, which is where the outside scenes at Riverrun where filmed and County Londonderry is where any scenes of Dragonstone island's beaches where filmed, at Downhill Strand.

Game of Thrones Locations in Croatia

Croatia is probably the best country to visit if you're looking to walk in the footsteps of your favourite characters, and Dubrovnik is the major set used for scenes depicting the city of King’s Landing, one of the central fictional locations for the entire series. There are even specific Game of Thrones tours run in Dubrovnik (see maps below)!

Dubrovnik

• The Dubrovnik City Walls - Dubrovnik's the Old City is protected by the famous medieval UNESCO World Heritage site Walls of Dubrovnik. The huge stone walls can be found right on the cliffs at the coast, they are very similar to how King's Landing is described in the novels.

• St. Dominic Street - found close to a monastery and a Dominican church, in central Dubrovnik Old City. The narrow alleys were used for the majority of the King's Landing market scenes.

• Fort Lovrijenac (Fort of St. Lawrence) and Fort Bokar.

• Pile Gate - a main entrance to Dubrovnik old city, it has a wooden drawbridge, which dates back to 1537. It faces out to sea, and has a stone dock. The Fort Lovrijenac and Fort Bokar towers are on either side to protect against nautical attack (looking out over the water, the left tower is Fort Bokar, Fort Lovrijenac is the right tower).

• The Stradun - this is Dubrovnik's main street, it connects the Sponza Palace and Dubrovnik Cathedral. This street was where Cersei's Walk of Penance was filmed in Season 5, this scene required more than 500 extras.

• Gradac Park - location of the Purple Wedding feast at which Joffrey died.

• Trsteno Arboretum - the location of the vast gardens of the Red Keep.

• Belvedere Atrium - the trial by combat of Oberyn Martell against Gregor Clegane took place here.

The Dubrovnik locations of the Rector's Palace, Minčeta Tower, Lokrum Island and Dubac quarry can also be recognised from various scenes in Game of Thrones.

Split

Some locations found in Split include Diocletian's Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage site, Diocletian's, the Roman emperor, private mansion), the cellars of the palace served as the underground passages in Meereen, Perun quarry and Mosor mountain.

Some other Croatian locations include: Imotski, Šibenik, Kaštel Gomilica (some outside scenes in Braavos, where Arya Stark sells oysters), Trogir (the monastery of St. Dominic) and Baška Voda.

Klis Fortress - north of Split. The Meereen exteriors are filmed here.

Game of Thrones Locations in Spain

According to the production team of Game of Thrones, Spain’s historic medieval Islamic palaces were the perfect setting for much of the filming of the series’ events taking place in the fictional universe, specifically for region of Dorne, which was in fact inspired by real life medieval Spain. Here are some of the main cities with connections to and that can be spotted throughout the seasons of Game of Thrones:

Seville

Seville is a stunning city, famous for being the birthplace of Flamenco dancing, but it is also home to the Alcázar of Seville, which represented the Sunspear and Water Gardens, which are seat of the House Martell in Dorne and a major location in the Game of Thrones saga.

Furthermore, the Plaza de Toros in Osuna, a town to the east of Seville, is a bullfighting ring that is still actively used, and portrayed the main Meereen Fighting pit. The Italica Roman Ruins, a Roman amphitheatre was where the Dragonpit was filmed, and the Seville Royal Dockyards.

Córdoba

There are two main recognisable filming sights in Córdoba: The Roman bridge represents the Volantis's Long Bridge and Castillo de Almodóvar del Río can be recognised as Highgarden.

Almería

The sections of the Water Gardens were filmed at the Alcazaba of Almería for season 6 onward, its El Chorrillo Sierra Alhamilla was were Vaes Dothrak was set, Mesa Roldán and Sorbas were used for a scene located outside of Meereen and Tabernas Desert portrayed parts of the Dothraki Sea.

Castellón

The parts of Castellón that can be spotted in Game of Thrones include Portal Fosc, Calle Mayor, Parque de la Artillería and Plaza de Santa María. Also the beautiful coastal town of Peniscola, including its 13th century castle, was used for filming parts of Meereen.

Girona

Girona's connections to Game of Thrones are plentiful. The city was the location for Oldtown and parts of King's Landing and Braavos, its Cathedral of Saint Mary of Girona was set for the exterior of the Sept of Baelor in King's Landing, and other sites used included Sant Pere de Galligants, Streets of Ferran el Catòlic, l’Escola Pia and Sant Martí, which were used for street markets in Braavos, and Plaça dels Jurats.

Castillo de Zafra of Guadalajara was used for the Tower of Joy, found in the show’s Red Mountains of Dorne. Barcelona’s Castell de Santa Florentina portrays House Tarly's home castle of Horn Hill, it is a short way northeast from Oldtown. San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Bermeo is the setting for Dragonstone castle. Itzurun Beach in Zumaia. The city of Cáceres represents Oldtown and its Malpartida municipality also feature in the 7th season of the show. Navarre’s Bardenas Reales was used for bits of the Dothraki Sea.

Check out this mini guide to Spain's Game of Thrones hot spots, including an encounter with Jon Snow himself!

Castillo de Zafra, Guadalajara, Spain

Clearly Spain has more than enough Game of Thrones lore to offer a prospective traveller or even a student! If you are considering coming to one of these stunning Spanish cities, when you’re done dreaming about the Game of Thrones universe, take a look at this guide to one of the more practical aspects of the Erasmus process: applying for the grant!

Game of Thrones Locations in Malta

The beautiful island nation was used early on in production for sets representing King's Landing and the Free City of Pentos, especially the beautiful town of Mdina. Check out this comprehensive map to guide you around the beautiful Game of Thrones filming locations found in Malta!

• Verdala Palace - the Maltese president's summer palace from the 16th century, was used for the exteriors of the mansion of Illyrio Mopatis's in Pentos.

• Mtahleb Valley - just outside of Rabat was where the funeral pyre for Drogo was buil, where Daenerys rises from the fire with her baby dragons.

• Fort Manoel, in the town Gżira - the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, which is where public execution of Eddard Stark takes place.

Other stunning locations in Malta include: The Azure Window coastal cliff formation on the Maltese island of Gozo, Fort Ricasoli, Manikata, Gate of Mdina, Vittoriosa's Fort St Angelo's, Mdina's Pjazza Mesquita, the cloister of the St. Dominic Monastery in Rabat and San Anton Palace.

Mdina Gate, Malta

Game of Thrones Locations in Iceland

Due to Iceland’s stunning, icy landscapes and despite its limited sunlight in winter presenting challenges, this country was integral in the filming of many scenes depicting treacherous expeditions of the Night’s Watch taking place north of the Wall. The filming locations include:

• The Svínafellsjökul glacier, the Snæfellsjökull glacier, Smyrlabjörg and the Höfðabrekkuheiði hills – representing the Fist of the First Men and Frostfangs severe frozen mountain landscape.

• Grjótagjá cave - This is the hot spring where Ygritte and Jon get busy! And the hot pool is in fact a very popular tourist spot and place to bathe.

• A frozen lava field Mývatn Lake – this is Mance Rayder’s wildling army camp. The camp’s construction took months of work by the Game of Thrones art department, as well as weeks of construction work by the local crew on-site, the filming took place at -11 degrees Celsius. Brrrr!

Fun fact: the actor who plays one Game of Thrones' most formidable characters, Ser Gregor Clegane, is actually an Icelander! When Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, a native of Reykjavik, isn't busy playing The Mountain, he spends his time competing as a professional strongman. And weighing 180 kg and at an impressive height of 2. 08 metres, it is hardly a wonder why!

Fancy brushing up of your Icelandic? The country’s capital, Reykjavík, is one of the less obvious choices for an Erasmus exchange, but as many people will tell you, the experience is an incredible one.

Game of Thrones Locations in Morocco

Morocco was less widely used country for the filming of Game of Thrones, but it plays an important role in being home to the fictional city of Slaver's Bay.

• Aït Benhaddou was the filming location for Yunkai. Production used previously constructed wall sets that were built to portray Jerusalem in the film made there in 2005: Kingdom of Heaven.

• Little Barrage(nearby Aït Benhaddou) was where camp for Daenerys's army was constructed.

• Essaouira was used to represent Astapor and the Unsullied army are first presented in the Skala de la Ville city ramparts.

Aït Benhaddou, Morocco

If you’ve always wanted to have a Moroccan adventure but didn’t really know where to start or where to go, why not take a look at this guide to a 3 day tour around Marrakesh and its surrounding deserts?

Other Locations

• Cherven, Bulgaria

• Doune Castle, Scotland

• Los Angeles, USA

  Fun fact: the production had to travel to Los Angeles to shoot a scene with a "bear-actor" (yes, an actor who is in fact a real life actual bear) due to legal restrictions prohibiting the transport of said bear, named Little Bart, to the UK or anywhere closer to main production!

• Calgary, Canada

  Similarly, the fact that filming that took place in Calgary was specifically to obtain footage with a trained wolf, Quigley, to portray a fully-grown Direwolf in Season 5. The wolf trainer was too busy to get any wolves over to Ireland so it was decided that it would be easier to move that small part of the production briefly over to Canada.

As you now know, if you're a fan of Game of Thrones or just a fan of travelling to beautiful places, the world is your oyster! Even though the show may not be on Netflix, you have 10 countries to choose from to start your epic journey around the Game of Thrones universe in real life!

Erasmusu can be a great source of help on your travels. They have a huge variety of accommodation options, whether you're looking for a room in a shared flat, a space at a university residence, a studio apartment or a whole house, the Erasmusu has something for everybody!

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