Strangford, Northern Ireland: where Game of Thrones’ House of Stark rules, Winterfell stands and direwolves roam
- The picturesque coastal village has found fame as a filming location for the popular HBO fantasy show
- Tour groups follow the same predictable path, missing out on some of the loveliest aspects of the area
If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Strangford (population: about 500) is simply one of Northern Ireland’s most picturesque coastal villages. Its houses are pastel-painted, it has a tiny marina and a large ferry, and the Angelus bell rings piously, and punctually, at midday and six o’clock. It’s an ornithologist’s tweeting dream.
Even the Troubles (ethno-nationalist violence that racked Northern Ireland between the late 1960s and the late 90s) left it unscathed, the last major skirmish in the district being the Battle of Strangford Lough, in 877.
And yet it has an unlikely claim to fame: it’s where Game of Thrones, that compendium of sex and violence, began its journey to becoming one of the world’s most-watched television series.
Castle Ward, on Strangford’s outskirts, is the location for Winterfell, home of the Stark family. In the first series, Robert Baratheon, King of Westeros, comes for a visit. Two-thirds of the way through he dies, the plot moves into top gear and, a few seasons later, village newsagent Kevin Kearney is selling mugs that announce “Winter is Coming” and “Bend The Knee” doormats.
Initially, these were a puzzle. I spend several weeks a year in Strangford but, being a latecomer to GoT, assumed the weather prediction and other brooding T-shirt slogans (“The North Remembers”) were a reflection of local sentiment.
Kearney couldn’t enlighten me, never having seen the series. In this he’s not alone: almost everyone you ask in the village denies knowledge of the TV programme.