Game of Thrones is a truly international production, filmed in Croatia, Malta, Morocco, Iceland and Spain. But the majority of filming actually takes place in and around Northern Ireland. The province’s relationship with the programme’s makers began in 2008 when personnel from Northern Ireland Screen met with HBO’s executives in Los Angeles. The agency was keen to lure the production to Northern Ireland and invited the HBO team to the country for a familiarisation tour of the area, even contributing £3.2m ($4.75m) to the show’s pilot in the hope it would be ordered to series.

While the series’ interior scenes are shot in the expanding dockland environs of Titanic Studios in Belfast (the largest studio was once used to help in the construction of the Titanic) the show has made real use of the surrounding countryside. Countless locations across Northern Ireland have stood in for fictional areas and kingdoms within the show, many aided by visual effects that help to transform them into something truly otherworldly. For a show like Game of Thrones, the ability of a location to offer a variety of looks and styles is invaluable.

Location, location, location

I spoke with Robert Boake, the show’s supervising location manager, as he drove around the country scouting for locations that will be used in season six. He says there are huge advantages to filming in Northern Ireland. “One of the things in the landscape is that there is such a sense of antiquity, there are old castles and ruins that lend themselves so well to the storylines. Often we can find structures that are inhabitable or find ones that are intact enough that we can just use them as sets.”

In the first season, viewers were invited to the North of Westeros, in particular the land of Winterfell. Home to the Starks (possibly the unluckiest family in a show full of unlucky families), Winterfell is actually Castle Ward in County Down. Belonging to the Ward family since the 16th Century, the 820-acre estate is one of the largest demesne landscapes to survive in Ireland. It features several styles of architecture throughout its grounds, which range from the Gothic to the Georgian. It was here that Ned Stark welcomed King Robert Baratheon before accepting his ill-fated position as Hand of the King.

Boake admits that each year presents a challenge in finding new locations to show to viewers. “On one hand it is easier because you have the track record and you know where you are going. On the other hand you think, is this going to be the year that you turn up some blanks.”