Before attending this program, I knew two things about Belfast. First, it was not in Ireland, in fact, but technically in the UK. The second thing I knew was that much of A Game of Thrones (GoT) was filmed here. A simple Google search initially revealed my worst fear: all of the GoT excursions were a full day, and I did not have that time. Luckily for me, the second page of Google results unveiled the much more attainable option of an exhibition filled with props, costumes and extras from the show.
For context, I’ll give a little background on myself. I own and have read every book in the Song of Fire and Ice series, including the historical novel about the Targaryen dynasty. All of the books are over 1,000 pages, many hitting the 1,500 page mark, and for my dad’s birthday I bought him the entire television series (which was actually a gift to myself). I apologize in advance if this post is full of character and location names that make no sense to a reader that is not a fan, but unfortunately, I don’t have the word count capacity to explain everything.
Northern Ireland, and Belfast in particular, were the centers for filming A Game of Thrones. Several castles, including Dragonstone and Winterfell are in the region, and the Dothraki Sea and the King’s Road are some other sites of importance. The exhibition was an immersive, interactive and overall very fun experience due to the wonderful staff, and large quantity of props, costumes and behind-the-scenes information.
The staff at the exhibit help immerse the attendee into the world of GoT not only by providing fun facts about the props, but also stories of the filming, as many of them were extras. One such extra I met acted in seasons three through five and played a whole cast of characters: as a night of the Gold Cloaks, a man of the Night’s Watch, a Wildling, and finally, a Wight. He had plenty of entertaining anecdotes. On one occasion as a Wildling, he watched one of the major characters, Tormund Giantsbane (played by Kristofer Hivju) try to throw his sword into the air and catch it, only to miss and nearly lose an eye during a break in filming. One fun fact is the cloaks of the men of the Night’s Watch were made from faux fur IKEA rugs and ended up weighing as much as the wearer when soaked with rain and snow (as they often were).
The main exhibit comprised of costumes and props–the most notable being the massive dragon skulls. These skulls adorned the crypts of the Great Keep in King’s Landing, the largest being as tall as a bus. They are very detailed and were terrifying not only to a poor toddler but to me as well. The space is divided into different rooms, all with a theme of one of the great houses or notable location. My favorite location was Castle Black and the Wall, where (despite sweating profusely due to no AC) I immediately felt chilled upon walking in. Very realistic looking snow covered the walls and floor, and the Night’s Watch and Wildling costumes dotted the room. Among the collection were various weapons, a crate that contained a wight, rigged to shake and scream, and part of the backdrop of Castle Black itself. Though the exhibit will be taken down in another week, filming for A Game of Thrones was a great opportunity for Belfast to gain popularity in a more positive light than many people previously thought of it. The filming of this series exposed the world to the natural, almost fantastic, beauty of the area and tourism of these sites continues to do so.