A spectacular tree-lined avenue which provided one of the backdrops for the hit fantasy drama Game Of Thrones has fallen victim to Storm Gertrude.

A number of trees making up the famous Dark Hedges in Co Antrim came down in the high winds that have battered the North.

The beech trees were planted in the 18th century by a local family, the Stuarts, with the intent of creating a grand entrance to their nearby Georgian mansion, Gracehill House.

Already one of the most photographed natural landmarks on the island of Ireland, the tourist attraction recently achieved global prominence after it appeared in Season Two of the award-winning HBO series.

#StormGertrude is a fast mover. Last 24 hours of sat pics from @eumetsat show it growing, with classic hook shape. pic.twitter.com/uZRPfWGkH6 — Liam Dutton - Weatherman (@liamdutton) January 29, 2016

Power has been restored to about 20,000 homes and businesses across Ireland in the wake of the storm.

With the north and north west worst affected, about 5,500 customers in the Republic and about 3,000 in the North remained blacked out as the near hurricane force winds swept by.

The Blaney and Foyle bridges in Donegal and Derry had to be closed for several hours for safety reasons while trees were reported down in many counties.

A tree falls on a car in Maghera as #StormGertrude closes a number of roads https://t.co/qlvDCeUa0zhttps://t.co/rmHCZfjOch — BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) January 29, 2016

At the height of the black-outs 10,000 customers in the Republic had no power with 92 faults reported in the north west alone.

ESB Networks said that one major power cut in Stranorlar was repaired, restoring power to more than 1,500 homes and businesses, only for a second big fault to hit about 3,000 customers.

The highest wind speed recorded was 50 knots at Malin Head – a storm force gale on the Beaufort scale.

Met Éireann had forecast the Atlantic storm system, the seventh of the winter, would bring winds gusting up to 81mph (130kph).

Outages were also reported in Wicklow, Westport, parts of Dublin, Athenry, Cong, Co Mayo, Roscommon, Limerick, Kerry and Wexford.

Stormy conditions abating quickly this morn Windy for rest of today, gales on N&NW coasts Sunny spells, shwrs bec widespread later High7-10C — Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 29, 2016

ESB Networks was posting updates on outages on powercheck.ie as reports of damage continued to come in and supplies were restored.

Several flights in and out of Dublin Airport were cancelled, with two services into Shannon delayed and Irish Ferries cancelled sailings on its fast ferry from Dublin.

AA Roadwatch carried a series of reports of trees down on roads across the country.

A spokesman for ESB Networks said all its emergency repair crews were on the roads and tasked to broken lines.