Social & Cultural Geography

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Overcoming the Troubles in Westeros: changing

perceptions of post-conflict Northern Ireland
through the diegetic heritage of Game of Thrones

Christoph Doppelhofer

To cite this article: Christoph Doppelhofer (2023): Overcoming the Troubles in Westeros:
changing perceptions of post-conflict Northern Ireland through the diegetic heritage of Game
of Thrones, Social & Cultural Geography, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2023.2209062

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2023.2209062

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa

UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group.

Published online: 11 May 2023.

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SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2023.2209062

Overcoming the Troubles in Westeros: changing perceptions

of post-conflict Northern Ireland through the diegetic
heritage of Game of Thrones
Christoph Doppelhofer
Department of Geography and Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, Durham University, Durham, UK

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The fantasy series Game of Thrones (GoT) has become a phenom­ Received 14 March 2022
enon that reaches far beyond the television screens. Through Accepted 17 April 2023
extensive on-location filming, the series has linked its diegetic KEYWORDS
world of Westeros to countless heritage sites across several coun­ diegetic heritage; heritage
tries, most prominently Northern Ireland. Through narrative and tourism; post-conflict
special effects, GoT has overcoded these landscapes with their on- heritage; popular culture;
screen identities leading not only to a surge in tourists who want to imaginary geographies;
travel to fictional locations such as ‘Winterfell’ and ‘King’s Landing’, place-myths
but also affecting previously established global perceptions and
PALABRAS CLAVE
local identities. Previously associated with the heritage of the patrimonio diegético;
Northern Ireland conflict, the so-called Troubles, GoT enabled a turismo patrimonial;
reimagining of this landscape through popular culture. A multi- patrimonio posconflicto;
sited visual ethnography on the impact of the series on the heritage cultura popular; geografías
landscapes of its filming locations reveals that popular culture can imaginarias; mitos-lugares
create a new heritage – even entirely fictional and one of blood and
MOTS CLEFS
death itself – that can significantly contribute to overcoming
patrimoine diégétique;
national trauma and memory conflict. This sentiment was especially tourisme du patrimoine
emphasized by people growing up and living in Northern Ireland, culturel; patrimoine d’après
who saw their home’s reputation significantly improved and their conflit; culture populaire;
new role as ‘Game of Thrones Territory’ as a unifying narrative in an géographie de l’imaginaire;
inherently dissonant heritage context. lieux mythiques

Superando los problemas en Westeros: cambiando

las percepciones de la Irlanda del Norte postconflicto
a través del legado diegético de Juego de Tronos
RESUMEN
La serie de fantasía Juego de Tronos (conocida en sus siglas en
inglés, GoT) se ha convertido en un fenómeno que va mucho más
allá de las pantallas de televisión. A través de una extensa filmación

CONTACT Christoph Doppelhofer christoph.doppelhofer@hotmail.com Department of Geography and Centre

for Visual Arts and Culture, Durham University, Durham, UK
Superando los problemas en Westeros: cambiando las percepciones de la Irlanda del Nortepostconflicto a través del
legado diegético de Juego de Tronos.
Surmonter les Troubles au Westeros : les perceptionschangeantes de l’après-conflit en Irlande du Nord à travers
l’héritagediégétique de Game of Thrones
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or
with their consent.
2 C. DOPPELHOFER

insitu, la serie ha vinculado su mundo diegético de Westeros a

innumerables sitios patrimoniales en varios países, principalmente
en Irlanda del Norte. A través de la narrativa y los efectos especiales,
GoT ha sobre codificado estos paisajes con sus identidades en
pantalla, lo que lleva no sólo a un aumento de turistas que desean
viajar a lugares ficticios como ‘Winterfell’ y ‘King’s Landing’, sino
que también afecta las identidades locales y las percepciones glo­
bales previamente establecidas. Anteriormente asociado con la
herencia del conflicto de Irlanda del Norte, los llamados ‘proble­
mas’, GoT permitió una reinvención de este paisaje a través de la
cultura popular. Una etnografía visual en múltiples sitios sobre el
impacto de la serie en los paisajes patrimoniales de sus lugares de
rodaje revela que la cultura popular puede crear un nuevo patri­
monio, incluso completamente ficticio y de sangre y muerte, que
puede contribuir significativamente a superar el trauma nacional y
la memoria conflictuada. Este sentimiento fue especialmente enfa­
tizado por las personas que crecieron y vivieron en Irlanda del
Norte, quienes vieron que la reputación de sus pueblos natales
mejoró significativamente y su nuevo papel como ‘territorio’ de
Juego de Tronos como una narrativa unificadora en un contexto
patrimonial inherentemente disonante.

Surmonter les Troubles au Westeros : les

perceptions changeantes de l’après-conflit en
Irlande du Nord à travers l’héritage diégétique de
Game of Thrones
RÉSUMÉ
La série fantastique Game of Thrones (GoT) est devenue un
phénomène qui va bien au-delà de votre écran de télévision. Avec
un nombre impressionnant de lieux de tournage, elle a associé son
monde diégétique de Westeros à d’innombrables sites de patri­
moine à travers plusieurs pays et plus particulièrement, en Irlande
du Nord. Par le biais du récit et d’effets spéciaux, GoT a surcodé ces
lieux avec leurs identités à l’écran avec pour résultat non seulement
une vague de touristes qui veulent visiter les sites fictifs, par exem­
ple « Winterfell » et « King’s Landing », mais aussi un effet sur les
perceptions internationales et les identités locales déjà en exi­
stence. Associé auparavant avec l’héritage du conflit de l’Irlande
du Nord, aussi appelé « les Troubles », GoT a permis de réimaginer
cet environnement à travers la culture populaire. Une ethnographie
visuelle pour de multiples emplacements sur l’impact qu’a
engendré la série pour les sites patrimoniaux de ses lieux de tour­
nage révèle que la culture populaire peut créer un nouveau patri­
moine, qui peut même être complètement fictif et fait de sang et de
mort, ce qui peut grandement contribuer à surmonter un trauma­
tisme à l’échelle nationale et un conflit en mémoire. Ce sentiment a
été particulièrement évoqué par les personnes qui grandissent et
vivent en Irlande du Nord, qui ont vu une amélioration notable de la
réputation de leur pays et considèrent leur nouveau rôle de «
Territoire de Game of Thrones » comme un discours d’unité au
sein d’un contexte de patrimoine fondamentalement discordant.
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 3

1. Introduction: Fire and Blood in Northern Ireland

People ask what made these Irish people turn against each other – because we are all Irish.
And really, it was all one incident. It was one incident of violence that just divided the whole
country. This one incident of violence was so horrific, it split families, it set house against
house, town against town and caused wave after wave after wave of violence to come in its
wake. And that one original horrific act of violence was, of course, when Joffrey Baratheon cut
off Ned Stark’s head.
(Richard, tour guide for Game of Thrones Tours NI, 16.06.2018)

Everyone who participates in Richard’s ‘Iron Islands Tour’ along the Antrim Coast will hear
this anecdote. It usually brings the jolly mood of the passengers on the bus to a sudden
halt as the passengers anticipate some profound truth to be told, only to be followed by a
burst of laughter after this expectation is subverted, something Richard utterly enjoys, he
told me. Playing with visitors’ perceptions and preconceptions of Northern Ireland,
Richard not only negotiates the troubled past but also the present of his home country.
It demonstrates that the memory of the Northern Ireland conflict, the so-called Troubles,
is still very much present in the minds of people within and outside the British Isles and is
inseparably tied to the narrative of Northern Ireland’s heritage. Conversely, it also illus­
trates a recent change in narrative, as this particularly dark episode of Ireland’s past almost
seamlessly transitions into the story of Game of Thrones (GoT), which has significantly
reframed the perception of Northern Ireland over the last decade.
This paper does not intend to assess the origins or lasting societal inequalities of the
Northern Ireland conflict (Tonge, 2013), nor evaluate the economic effects of GoT through
screen tourism and newly established creative industries (Bolan & Kearney, 2017; Ramsey et
al., 2019). Instead, it aims to examine contemporary heritage-making processes through
popular culture and visual digital culture, and how these processes make it possible to
overcome conflict heritages and negative perceptions. This research illustrates how new
heritages created through popular culture and fantasy fiction enable a reimaging and retelling
of the dissonant heritage landscape of Northern Ireland which was previously shaped by the
heritage of the Troubles and the conflict’s reiteration through so-called ‘dark tourism’ (cf.
Light, 2017). Thereby, a multi-sited visual ethnography has been conducted to analyse how
GoT has impacted the (self-)perception of a post-conflict Northern Ireland, analysing the
heritagisation of the fantasy in the landscape and its reception both locally and globally.
The highly successful television series GoT (2011–2019), based on the books by George
R. R. Martin, has become far more than just a television programme. From colloquial
expressions such as ‘Winter is coming’, citations in countless other pieces of media to
referencing its themes and iconography in social and political debates, the series has
become a global pop-cultural phenomenon with an impact far beyond the screen. A large
part of its success is attributed to its elaborate worldbuilding, the process of designing
‘imaginary worlds with coherent geographic, social, cultural, and other features’ (von
Stackelberg & McDowell, 2015, p. 25). The imaginary world of Westeros and Essos, with its
architecture and art, history and tales, religious beliefs and mysticism, customs and
costumes, heraldry and iconography, portrays an intricate ‘diegetic heritage’. The term
‘diegetic’ refers to the spatiotemporal world in which a story takes place and is directly
experienced and encountered by its characters (Bunia, 2010). While still predominantly
used in film music and videogame theory when examining ‘diegetic music’ or ‘diegetic
4 C. DOPPELHOFER

sound’, music and sound that – unlike the score or soundtrack – can be heard by the
characters (Berndt, 2011), other features of the internal world of a story can be deemed
‘diegetic’. In the case of GoT the societal and cultural frame of the characters’ lived
experiences can be described as ‘diegetic heritage’. However, this highly detailed med­
iaevalesque fantasy world was projected onto real-world landscapes, most prominently
Northern Ireland, Croatia and Spain, overcoding numerous heritage sites with their on-
screen identities, and enhancing them with practical and digital effects. Thus, GoT’s
diegetic heritage transcended its internal imaginary world and can now be found,
experienced, and performed at its filming locations. Places such as Castle Ward
(Northern Ireland) and Dubrovnik (Croatia) that stood in for ‘Winterfell’ and ‘King’s
Landing’ respectively, have become desired destinations for those who want to experi­
ence this imaginary realm for themselves. This popularity led to dedicated tourist experi­
ences and official marketing campaigns by destination management organizations, but
also established an entirely new habitus and heritage performance across filming loca­
tions such as restaging scenes, wearing costumes, and using digital mapping tools and
social media to assert new toponyms and spatial identities (Doppelhofer, 2023).
Despite becoming a prolific field within the last three decades, most research on the
impact of film and television on filming locations remains very limited in its approaches
and concepts (cf. Connell, 2012; Domínguez-Azcue et al., 2021). This can be illustrated by
case studies on GoT filming locations which are, like most other studies on so-called
screen tourism, predominantly concerned with questions about how much tourism is
‘induced’ (Bolan & Kearney, 2017; Contu & Pau, 2022), destination marketing (Gómez-
Morales et al., 2022; Mitev et al., 2017), tourist motivation (Araújo Vila et al., 2021), and
authenticity and visitor experience (Waysdorf & Reijnders, 2017). While existing research
on heritage and identity portrayed in popular culture has primarily focussed on reitera­
tions of previous understandings and stereotypes of local, regional, or national imagin­
aries (e.g. Edensor, 2002; Light, 2012; Orr, 2018; Tzanelli, 2014), the present research
examines how a diegetic heritage created through fantasy fiction without any previous
spatiotemporal association can enable a reimagination and retelling of a landscape that
has been dominated by a heritage narrative of conflict and civil unrest.

2. An Ethnography of Ice and Fire: data and methodology

Data were collected from four months of fieldwork conducted across Northern Ireland
between May 2018 and June 2019 as part of a larger transnational visual ethnography on
the impact of GoT on heritage landscapes across Northern Ireland, Croatia and Spain
(Doppelhofer, 2022). For this contribution, the focus lies firstly on visual and material data
such as GoT-related destination marketing efforts, site interpretation, and material culture to
illustrate the tangible and intangible manifestations and ‘heritagisation’ of GoT’s fantasy
within the Northern Irish landscape (Crang & Cook, 2007), and secondly on interview data to
access individuals’ attitudes and values invisible to participant observation (Byrne, 2016).
Visual, material, and performative data were documented in fieldnotes, photographs, and
video, while interviews were recorded with a dictaphone and transcribed verbatim.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 local heritage and tourism stake­
holders, as well as 11 domestic and 51 international (mainly European, North American,
Australian) site visitors across Northern Ireland. Site visitors were recruited either singly or
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 5

in pairs across filming locations by approaching them on the day after they had been
observed engaging with anything related to GoT and/or had been identified as domestic
tourists, while local heritage and tourism stakeholders were, where possible, contacted in
advance via email or social media. Each of them were provided with a project information
sheet and a consent form ahead of the interview, ensuring confidentiality and, if
requested, anonymity (Doppelhofer & Todd, 2021).
These data were subsequently coded manually and with the data analysis software
NVivo 12 to organize and identify patterns and relationships between these different
types of qualitative data (Auerbach & Silverstein, 2003; Maher et al., 2018). Two main
themes emerged from this research; (1) GoT has become an integral part of the heritage
landscape; and (2) a reimagining of post-conflict Northern Ireland.1

3. Preserving conflict through heritage: the troubles with Troubles tourism

‘History [. . .] is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake’. – Ulysses,Joyce (1922, p. 34)

The Northern Ireland conflict, commonly known as ‘The Troubles’, was an ethnoreligious and
political armed conflict between Catholic Irish Republicans and Protestant Loyalists that cost
over 3,600 lives and lasted from the late 1960s to the late 1990s (McKittrick & McVea, 2002).
The Troubles left behind a heritage landscape full of remnants and imagery of this conflict,
such as the infamous ‘peace-lines’ that separated Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods, as
well as political murals and memorials, the latter significantly increasing in number since the
Good Friday Agreement in both Loyalist and Republican areas (Viggiani, 2014). These monu­
ments not only shape the landscape, but through their heritagisation they became both
sources of local identity and popular tourist attractions that keep the memory of the Troubles
tightly anchored in the local and global perception of Northern Ireland.
While there are other divided cities shaped by political and religious conflict, Belfast,
according to Brunn et al. (2010), is unique in that there are efforts to actively ‘create a
post-conflict image by promoting tourism in areas of previous sharp sectarian conflict’ (p.
89). Already in 1998, the British newspaper The Independent titled ‘The trouble is, tourists
are not as interested in the peaceful side of Ulster’ in an article on the emergence of
‘Troubles tourism’ (Atyah, 1998), while a 2001 Belfast City Council Report claimed that 43%
of tourists came to Belfast out of curiosity over the Troubles (Wiedenhoft Murphy, 2010, p.
542), illustrating the great appeal the heritage of the Troubles had very early on and
confirming Tunbridge and Ashworth’s assessment that ‘atrocity [is] one of the most
marketable of heritages’ (Tunbridge & Ashworth, 1996, p. 94). Promoting the heritage of
the Troubles also became part of the post-conflict regeneration strategy, utilizing tourism
as ‘conflict transformation’ (Crooke & Maguire, 2019). Indeed, both heritage and tourism
have often been ascribed reconciliatory properties for emotional, cultural, and economic
healing for post-conflict societies (Hisari et al., 2022; Reddy et al., 2020). Various organiza­
tions and scholars have subscribed to the post-conflict ‘healing-heritage model’, using the
‘”good” deep past’ to mend the ‘”bad” recent past and present’, hoping to create ‘social
cohesion and economic development’ (Giblin, 2014, p. 509). In what Causevic and Lynch
(2008) call ‘phoenix tourism’, they argue that using conflict heritage for tourism can be
part of conflict transformation. Naming post-Troubles Belfast as prime example, Causevic
and Lynch (2008) claim that employing conflict heritage can assist in social and economic
6 C. DOPPELHOFER

reconciliation, regeneration and reimagination, as well as rebuilding a sense of pride and

community after long-term political conflict.
However, using the term ‘post-conflict’ is itself a problematic description, as conflict in so-
called ‘post-conflict societies’ is often anything but resolved (Giblin, 2014, p. 503). Often it is
the heritage of certain groups within a society that causes conflict. Therefore, it is increasingly
questioned whether the strategy of using tourism and heritage to transform ‘swords into
ploughshares’ can actually work (Cochrane, 2015, p. 52), or whether it further entrenches
these dissonances and fosters divisions of sectarianism that caused the conflict in the first
place. As early as the 1990s, Hall (1994) described how the presumption of tourism as ‘a force
for peace is [a] gross simplification of [its] political dimensions’ (p. 91). Similarly, the idea that
heritage is a positive force for well-being and peace is an overly simplistic, if not naïve,
assumption. Heritage is a marker of identity and thus, by its very nature, exclusionary and
dissonant, as it divides between ‘us’ und ‘them’ (Tunbridge & Ashworth, 1996). This becomes
particularly apparent in intra-national conflicts when both heritage communities continue to
live side by side, best illustrated in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland.
Rather than resolving and leaving conflict behind, the heritagisation and subsequent
commodification of the Troubles through erecting more monuments and presenting them
through tourism reproduces and entrenches the territoriality and symbolically perpetuates
the conflict, transforming them into a conflict through other means (McDowell & Braniff,
2014; McDowell, 2008). Heritage performances such as the creation of new memorials and
commemorations are not meant for reconciliatory purposes but to demarcate territorial
claims and to express and reify competing identities, even to actively provoke, and thus
continue and transform violent conflict into symbolic conflict (McEvoy, 2011; Viejo-Rose,
2011). Instead of growing together, two mutually exclusive parallel heritage landscapes
have established themselves side by side. The ‘peace-lines’, unlike the Berlin Wall, have
never been torn down and remain a dividing feature between neighbourhoods (Brunn et al.,
2010, p. 91). Crossing them still feels like a forbidden, transgressive act.
This conflict is disseminated locally and globally through Troubles tourism. As one of the
world’s leading industries and often first and only point of contact with foreign peoples and
heritages, ‘tourism exerts a powerful force on how countries are imagined globally’ (Rivera,
2008, pp. 617–618). Media and tourism are highly influential in constructing particular gazes
by creating, shaping and projecting signs and imaginaries onto places and continuously
inscribing them with new place-myths ‘regardless of their character in reality’ (Shields, 1991,
pp. 60−61; cf. Urry & Larsen, 2011). The images and place-myths created through decades of
media coverage of the conflict and subsequent promotion and practice of Troubles tourism
created and, more importantly, sustained the perception that the Northern Ireland conflict is
yet to be resolved. McDowell (2008) noted that rather than overcoming divisions, there is an
‘eagerness to both Republican and Loyalist communities to compete for the attention and
sympathies of the tourist’ (p. 412). They try to direct the tourist gaze ‘upon conflict heritage
through a carefully mediated lens that frames a particular narrative’ to compete for hegemony
over victimhood and moral high ground, refuting their respective roles at the expense of the
other (Graham & Whelan, 2007, p. 493). Murals, monuments and plaques are used as evidence
to develop blame-narratives and to ‘promote one-sided and deliberately partial memories of
the conflict that reflect longstanding and ongoing segregation’ (McAtackney, 2015, p. 116).
When being guided by an outspoken Republican through West Belfast, I could not escape
siding unequivocally with his side of the narrative. Against my own better judgement and
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 7

even my guide’s self-admitted bias, his personal stories told in front of the Clonard Martyrs
Memorial, murals and the Milltown Cemetery left not a shred of doubt in me that there was
only one side to blame and only one ‘real victim’. The infamous Black Taxis, once the ‘people’s
taxis’ in lieu of the suspended public transport in West Belfast, have become one of the main
attractions through which tourists can ‘experience’ the landscape of the Troubles (Wiedenhoft
Murphy, 2010, p. 551). Often manned by former ex-militia and convicts of both sides, they
have become literal vehicles through which conflict heritage is produced, manipulated, and
sold to tourists. By presenting a divided streetscape and constructing symbols of division, the
visitor is reminded that ‘the conflict is never far away’ (McDowell, 2008, p. 419). Reproducing
the collective memory of conflict through tourism and perpetuating it symbolically both
abroad and at home, Troubles tourism is fostering the perception that the conflict is incum­
bent, requiring but a spark – say, a hard border post-Brexit – for an immediate and inevitable
return to violence of the ‘powder-keg Northern Ireland’.
Due to this single-identity work and the economic dependency of sustaining each com­
munity’s conflict heritage spaces and narratives, divisions are reified and formalized, thus
failing not only to improve inter-community relations but inadvertently selling tourists the
perception of the Northern Irish landscape as a series of mutually exclusive Republican and
Loyalist spaces and heritages. Ultimately, Graham and Whelan (2007) conclude, that the
heritage of Northern Ireland is largely irreconcilable as it is inherently dissonant and unfit as
a unifying force. Local authorities have since attempted to re-imagine Northern Ireland
through the creation of new heritage spaces, focussing on the de-politicization of the land­
scape by ‘replac[ing] ethnocratic or ethno-nationalist markers of identity with those of
“normal” capitalist space’ through gentrification, most notably the old shipyards that have
been transformed into the ‘Titanic Quarter’ (Graham & Nash, 2006, p. 261). Nevertheless,
considering the shipyards’ history of employment discrimination, the rather unceremonious
fate of both the Titanic and Belfast’s maritime industry, and Titanic Quarter’s geographically
limited extent, this project did little to reimagine Northern Ireland (Johnson, 2014).
However, in 2011 the world was introduced to a new and exciting perspective to view
Northern Ireland. The mighty Winterfell, the stormy Iron Islands, the vast grasslands of the
Dothraki Sea and the icy lands beyond the Wall, all can be found within the borders of
Northern Ireland. Following Rojek (1997), who argues that ‘myth and fantasy play an unusually
large role in the social construction of tourist sights’ (p. 53), the case of GoT illustrates that
fictions can become as much part of a landscape’s heritage as historic events. The diegetic
heritage of Westeros – ironically a world famous for its violence and conflict – finally enabled a
full reimagining of the previously troubled landscape of Northern Ireland by offering a new,
unifying heritage narrative detached from the ‘burden of history’ (Osborn, 2000).

4. The diegetic heritage of Westeros in Northern Ireland

Game of Thrones® has truly become part of Northern Ireland’s heritage and culture.
(‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ Exhibition, Ulster Museum, 2017)

Northern Ireland, in many ways, has become synonymous with Game of Thrones. Not only did
Belfast serve as production headquarters for the entire eight seasons (2011–2019), but over 63
different locations across the country were used to portray countless places of Westeros
(Robbie Boake, Supervising Locations Manager for GoT in Northern Ireland, 14.09.2018). Since
8 C. DOPPELHOFER

then, the diegetic heritage of GoT has become omnipresent across Northern Ireland, both
tangibly and intangibly through new material culture, site interpretation, marketing, guided
tours and tourist performances. From around 2014 onwards, numerous GoT locations tours
started to emerge to cater to an increasing number of fans who wanted to travel through the
fictional world they have come to know and love from their television screens. Across
Northern Ireland, several highly elaborate experiences have been developed that promise
to take visitors to the ‘real Westeros’ on fully immersive experiences guided by former extras,
meeting Thor and Odin – the dogs that played the ‘direwolves’ in the series2 – and dressing up
as either ‘Stark Bannermen’ or ‘Ironborn’ at significant filming locations (Figure 1).
Furthermore, many local shops have started to sell either officially licenced merchandise or
locally crafted products with illustrious, GoT-inspired names such as ‘Lannister Gold Mead’ or
‘A Game of Drones' honey, while pubs and restaurants serve food and drinks that bear
reference to the series. Before the pandemic, according to Tourism Northern Ireland’s 2019
Annual Report, around 350,000 visitors – or a sixth of all leisure tourists – annually came to
Northern Ireland solely due to GoT, bringing more than ‘£50 m+ economic benefit’ to the
country (Tourism NI, 2020).
This success can be partly attributed to the elaborate marketing efforts undertaken by
Northern Ireland. Between 2014 and 2019, the Northern Ireland Screen and Tourism Ireland
created annual destination marketing campaigns for the release of each season. Trying to
emulate famous examples such as New Zealand’s branding as ‘Home of Middle-earth’
following the success of The Lord of the Rings (Croy, 2010) and further linking real and fantasy
landscapes, Northern Ireland proclaimed itself ‘Game of Thrones Territory’ (Judith Webb, Head
of Screen Tourism at Tourism NI, 14.09.2018). For example, Belfast International Airport
welcomed arrivals for several years with posters of filming locations stating ‘Westeros is
here!’ and was even temporarily re-named to ‘Westeros Airport’ in 2017 (Belfast Telegraph,
2017). Across almost all publicly accessible filming locations, interpretation boards have been
placed, making GoT a permanent, tangible part of the site interpretation. A filming locations
map and an accompanying app not only link all sites together but make it possible to view
and navigate the entire Northern Irish landscape through a ‘Westeros lens’, reinforcing the

Figure 1. GoT experiences and souvenirs across Northern Ireland. Meeting the Direwolves (left); GoT tour
at Ballintoy Harbour (top middle), ‘A Game of Drones’ honey (bottom middle) and GoT souvenirs (right).
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 9

Figure 2. Map of ‘Game of Thrones Territory’, showing filming locations, 'Doors of Thrones' and 'Game of
Thrones Tapestry' (left); interpretation boards at Ballintoy Harbour (right top) and Portstewart (right
bottom).

perception that its diegetic heritage is indeed part of the physical landscape (Figure 2). More
than just a creative way of destination marketing and a means to generate income through
tourism, inscribing these imaginaries onto the landscape created novel ways of reading and
engaging with the heritage of Northern Ireland.
Similarly, heritage sites started to acknowledge and adopt their new fictional identity,
most notably the previously little-known National Trust property Castle Ward, which
became one of the prime destinations for GoT fans from across the world. In the series,
the late 16th century tower house Old Castle Ward and the adjacent small historic farm­

Figure 3. Becoming Winterfell. Old Castle Ward (top left) and Winterfell (bottom left, screenshot from
GoT S01E01); signpost directing to ‘Winterfell’ (top right); family engaging in GoT activity (bottom right).
10 C. DOPPELHOFER

yard on the shores of Strangford Lough has been transformed into the mighty fortress of
Winterfell, the ancestral home of House Stark and capital of the North of Westeros, one of
the main locations of the series. Winterfell, although stripped of its CGI in real-life, can be
seen, heard, and indeed felt, all around (Figure 3).
The management of Castle Ward put up signposts to guide visitors to ‘Winterfell’,
released a filming locations map, opened a GoT merchandise shop in one of their
historic farmyard buildings and offers ‘Thrones and Tower Tours’ to tell Castle Ward’s
story through GoT. For three consecutive years (2016–2018), Castle Ward has also been
the venue of the ‘Winterfell Festival’. Part Renaissance fair, part fan convention, it
attracted up to three thousand GoT enthusiasts from near and far. The private
company ‘Winterfell Tours’ is offering costumed archery, self-guided bicycle tours
within the demesne, and excursions to other nearby locations. Google Maps even
displays ‘Winterfell Castle & Demesne’ as an attraction, describing it as a ‘famed
ancient castle on scenic grounds’ (cf. Doppelhofer, 2023, p. 97–98). In the eyes of
the site management and fans alike, Old Castle Ward is almost a spiritual place, the
place where the ‘real’ Winterfell is located and ‘where it all began’ (General Manager
Winterfell Tours from Northern Ireland, Castle Ward, 30.06.2018). Sarah Sharp, visitor
experience manager of Castle Ward, proudly proclaimed:

Figure 4. The material culture of GoT. ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ in the Ulster Museum (top left); ‘Glass of
Thrones’ #6 on the Titanic Slipway (bottom left); three of the ‘Doors of Thrones’ (The Dark Horse, Belfast;
‘Owen’s Bar, Limavady; Blakes of the Hollow, Enniskillen’) and the author’s fully stamped passport (right).
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 11

We are Winterfell! We need to own that and say, ‘This is actually us!’
(Sarah Sharp from England, Castle Ward 14.06.2018)

However, GoT not only reimagined ‘old’ heritage. Under the ‘Game of Thrones Territory’
brand, the last three seasons were accompanied by the creation and public display of new
cultural artefacts made in, or at least paying tribute to, traditional, historic crafts such as
wood carving, weaving and stained-glass making while utilizing the iconography of GoT.
These include the ‘Doors of Thrones’ (2016), the ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ (2017–2019)
and the ‘Glass of Thrones’ (2019), all of which have become heritage sites in their own
right (Figure 4). These objects have fused the iconography of GoT even further with the
heritage landscape and narrative of Northern Ireland. The 2016 ‘Doors of Thrones’ literally
transformed parts of a Northern Irish heritage site into a GoT related attraction. Standing
in for the ‘Kingsroad’, the Dark Hedges, an 18th century beech tree avenue in Antrim, has
become one of the most iconic filming locations and subsequently one of Northern
Ireland’s main attractions. When Storm Gertrude fell several of the over 200-year-old
beech trees in January 2016, their wood was salvaged and carved into ten doors, each
visually telling the story of an episode of Season 6 and hung across pubs and restaurants
close to filming locations across Northern Ireland. They soon became so popular that they
have become their own attraction including a passport to collect stamps, verifying, and
authenticating the visit. In 2019, the ‘Glass of Thrones’ windows, six medieval-style
painted glass windows, have been integrated into the urban heritage landscape of
Belfast, being placed on a path between Belfast City Hall and the Titanic Slipway.
The ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ is an 87-metre-long, hand-stitched retelling of the
entire series in the style of the Bayeux-Tapestry and was exhibited several times in
Belfast’s Ulster Museum (National Museums Northern Ireland) between 2017 and 2022.
It was woven with 19th century Jaquard looms used during the prime of the Northern Irish
linen industry and the panels portraying the episodes of the last two seasons have been
hand-stitched in the gallery for visitors to observe the process (Valerie Wilson from Belfast,
Curator of Textiles NMNI, Cultra 20.04.2019). The tapestry became a tangible manifesta­
tion of centuries-old traditions and changing industries made relevant again through
popular culture, interweaving Northern Ireland and GoT in every imaginable way. It also
evoked a strong sense of ownership among the local population. The curator of the
exhibition reported of an encounter with a man from Belfast who could not thank her
enough for creating and exhibiting this artefact:

He said, ‘I’m so glad the museum has done this. [. . .] This is ours now, isn’t it? This belongs to
Belfast?’ [. . .] People locally have taken ownership of other aspects of the Game of Thrones
programme; I think they’re feeling the same way now about the tapestry.
(Valerie Wilson from Belfast, Cultra 20.04.2019)

The ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ attracted more visitors than any previous temporary
exhibition (Pamela Baird, Head of Strategic Research & Planning NMNI, 20.02.2019) and
became a much-requested item, most notably from Bayeux, which exhibited this pop-
cultural re-imagining next to the medieval original in 2019. The Chief Executive of the
NMNI, Kathryn Thomson, calls these artefacts not only ‘heritage assets’, but also sees them
as present and future representations of Northern Ireland:
12 C. DOPPELHOFER

The tapestry may be a new thing today, but in 100 years – like the Titanic story in Belfast – the
tapestry will allow us to tell the story of the screen industry in Northern Ireland, the growth of
the creative industries, how that shaped the city.
(Kathryn Thomson from Northern Ireland, Cultra 21.06.2019)

These GoT artefacts, and in turn GoT itself, have been incorporated into the official
national narrative and heritage canon by being exhibited in the national museum
and being treated as public monuments. GoT’s status is thereby elevated above a
mere commodity, transforming it into a representation of the nation and its history
and therefore, an essential part of Northern Ireland’s identity and perception. By
becoming a sought-after loan and a means to ‘highlight the centuries-old links
between Normandy and Ireland [and their] shared linen heritage’ (Kathryn
Thompson, Cultra 21.06.2019), the ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ is acting as a cultural
ambassador and represents Northern Ireland abroad as ‘Game of Thrones Territory’
(cf. Knowles, 2011). The claim made by the NMNI exhibition that ‘Game of Thrones
has truly become part of Northern Ireland’s heritage and culture’ is not an
overstatement.

5. From West Belfast to Westeros

People come here all the time and go ‘Is the Troubles still on?’ and I’m like, ‘That was like 30
years ago!’ [. . .] Even though it was 30 years ago, people still have that [perception] of us. [. . .] I
feel like Game of Thrones has offered a new aspect for people that feel that we’re still in a war-
torn country.
(General Manager Winterfell Tours from Northern Ireland, Castle Ward 30.06.2018)

Even years after the ceasefire and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, there are still
security concerns due to the negative image through three decades of violence. This
perception has re-emerged due to Brexit and still unresolved issues surrounding the
border with the Republic of Ireland. Sarah Sharp, originally from England and now work­
ing for the National Trust in Northern Ireland, remembers:

If you heard Northern Ireland, all you ever saw was balaclavas, guns, bombs. When I first said
to my friends and family [that] I was even coming over here on holiday over 16 years ago, they
were like ‘why would you want to go there? They’d just kill you!’
(Sarah Sharp from England, Visitor Experience Manager, Castle Ward 14.06.2018)

A young Irish man from Dublin admitted that until recently the ‘bad image of fighting
going on up there’ has ‘put [him] off from coming to Northern Ireland – especially with a
Southern accent you might just get in trouble’ (Oisin from Ireland, 32, Dark Hedges
21.06.2018). However, even though growing up with these images in mind, being now
exposed to the reimagined landscapes of Northern Ireland via GoT, transformed this
negative perception, and enabled him and many others to look beyond the dark heritage
of the Troubles, showcasing the beauty and peace that were previously hidden behind a
curtain of violence undistorted from negative coverage:
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 13

It lets you see how beautiful the actual country is, all the different locations. I think when
Northern Ireland was publicised with all the bombings and fighting and stuff, you don’t get to
see the beauty of the actual country.
(Laura-Lee from Australia, 34, Castle Ward 21.06.2018)

For Gareth and Rona from Scotland, it signalled the end of the conflict and the realization
that there are other aspects to this country:

Gareth: Game of Thrones has exposed me and a lot of other people to find that it is safe to
travel to Northern Ireland. It’s a beautiful country.
Rona: [I am] a bit more aware that the Troubles have ended [. . .]. And now you realise it’s a
peaceful place with all these big Hollywood productions here.
(Gareth and Rona from Scotland, Belfast 13.06.2018)

This change of perception was particularly pronounced by most locals I met. When talking
with locals about how they feel about GoT’s impact on Northern Ireland, I was almost
always met with a sigh of relief and they would instantly highlight ‘the fact that Northern
Ireland is being talked about for something other than the Troubles’ (Moyra Lock from
Belfast, Head of Marketing Northern Ireland Screen, Belfast 19.06.2018). It was pointed out
on numerous occasions that ‘after all the problems that Northern Ireland had, it’s mar­
vellous that something good came along so tourists actually want to come and see the
place’ (Jennifer from County Antrim, 64, Ballintoy Harbour 24.06.2018). Helen, even more
explicitly, expressed that ‘it took away the Troubles’ (Helen from Northern Ireland, Castle
Ward 17.09.2018). For some, it provides a new basis to finally move away from the
negative image of the Troubles, as has been described by a young couple from Antrim
who themselves had visited the Dark Hedges for the first time due to the increased
interest from GoT. They thought that this new perception might enable new perspectives
not only for other people to see Northern Ireland, but also to move forward as a society.

Louis: Obviously a lot of things are about the Troubles and black tourism in Northern Ireland. I
think it’s really nice to have something fresh. Because obviously that’s all we are known for.
Megan: It’s a new perspective for people to see us.
Louis: Moving on, away from that dark period of people being angry. You know, moving into
a more mixed society, different perceptions.
(Louis and Megan from County Antrim, both 23, Dark Hedges 24.06.2018)

The shift from Troubles to GoT can even be illustrated by one of Northern Ireland’s most
iconic tourist offers, the Black Taxis. In recent years, many Black Taxi tour providers
expanded their offer along the Antrim coast and other points of interest connected to
GoT. By loosening their territorial ties from their original context of West Belfast to the
imaginary land of Westeros, they too have been increasingly depoliticized and presenting
a wider landscape rather than a narrow, political snapshot. This depoliticizing of the
Northern Irish landscape and its heritage has also been emphasized by pub-owner
Caroline McErlean. She pointed out how GoT created a unifying, depoliticized narrative
that ‘crosses boundaries’ of old entrenched divisions:

It’s a common denominator that the people in Northern Ireland talk about now. You know, it’s
another focus. It’s not political. And everybody knows about it. Everybody has somebody
who’s been involved in it at some level. Our two boys were extras in the show. And this year,
our youngest fellow was body double of Gendry. [. . .] There’s employment now, there’s
14 C. DOPPELHOFER

diversity, there’s a story, there’s excitement around it.

(Caroline McErlean from County Down, owner of The Cuan, Strangford 18.06.2018)

One of the key words utilized when asking locals about their feeling towards GoT was
‘pride’. Pride for the ‘recognition’ of their home by the world (Damien from County Derry/
Londonderry, Limavady 20.06.2018), pride that ‘such a big phenomenon [. . .] has been
filmed here’ (Kevin from County Down, Strangford 18.06.2018), and pride that their
country is ‘famous for something so positive’ and Northern Ireland is now able to ‘show
it off’ to the world (Richard from County Down, Bangor 07.05.2019). This pride and
newfound confidence about their home country has been enthusiastically expressed by
Moyra Lock, Head of Marketing at the NI Screen:

It’s a complete transformation. That is no exaggeration. You know, ten years ago, Northern
Ireland was not the second cousin. We were the third, fourth, fifth, two times removed. We
weren’t talked to, too far away, regional, parochial, too small, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do
that. [. . .] We can do anything now! [. . .] We’re as good as anybody else!
(Moyra Lock, Belfast 19.06.2018)

Several local informants were particularly proud how GoT enabled Northern Ireland to
once again live up to its legacy as an industrial heartland, now as a centre of new screen
and media industries, however, without the discriminatory employment policies of old.
Where once the Titanic had been built and linen mills produced cloth, there are now
studios in which large-scale Hollywood productions are made. This has even been
monumentalized by placing the sixth and final ‘Glass of Thrones’ window next to the
new film studios at the end of the Titanic Slipway with Samson and Goliath, the monu­
mental yellow gantries of the old shipyards, and the Titanic Experience behind it (cf.
Figure 4). Valerie Wilson, who grew up in Belfast, described her feelings towards the
change GoT brought to her home:

What it has done for Northern Ireland is incredible. Because, when I was growing up in Belfast,
from where my bedroom window was, I could look down where those big cranes are and
where the shipyard was. And then during the Troubles all declined. And I just think it’s
fabulous now, I drive down to work and what I’m seeing is the Painthall [note: film studios on
the site of the old shipyard] and this kind of phoenix rising from something that was very bad.
So, it has done so much good for everyone. And I feel if it has opened people’s eyes to come
to Northern Ireland.
(Valerie Wilson, Cultra 30.04.2019)

Although the so-called ‘Game of Thrones effect’, the knock-on effect the screen industry
supposedly has on the economic growth of Northern Ireland, has recently been critically
scrutinized and deemed overstated (Ramsey et al., 2019; cf. NI Screen, 2018), the local
population’s perception of its effect has been mostly positive and seen as a way forward.
Richard described the economic impact as ‘unfathomable’ when talking about how many
people have financially profited from GoT either through working on the production itself
or the subsequent screen and tourism industry:

There has been a running joke for a lot of years now, that there’s not a person left in Northern
Ireland that hasn’t benefited a pound off Game of Thrones in some way, shape or form. [. . .] It’s
certainly helped with just letting everything filter away. There’s better things to do. It certainly
can be part of what propels us forward.
(Richard, Bangor 07.05.2019)
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 15

The only issue about the reimagining of Northern Ireland that has been raised repeatedly by
several informants was overtourism attributed to the additional exposure through GoT along
the Antrim Coast, a fate shared with other prominent filming locations such as Dubrovnik.
However, while the local population of Dubrovnik has been particularly conflicted that its
reimagining as ‘King’s Landing’ overshadowed the heritage of the Republic of Ragusa
(Doppelhofer, 2023), ‘complaints’ by Northern Irish locals were few and trivial at best. For
example, a geologist I met, unsurprisingly, was disappointed that everyone appears only to
have eyes for GoT when the rock formations and geological features of the Antrim Coast are
so much more interesting. And Damien, owner of Owens’ Bar in Limavady, wished the house a
few metres down the street would get as much attention as his ‘Door of Thrones’ – it is the
place where the famous song ‘Danny Boy’ had been written.

6. ‘Views to die horribly for’: between constructive amnesia and

palimpsestic heritage
Creating new place-myths through popular culture such as GoT’s imaginary realm can do
more than supplement previous (mis)conceptions; it can reshape them. The reimagining
of Northern Ireland through the diegetic heritage of GoT and the resulting screen and
tourism industries could indeed be the necessary shift from ‘destructive remembrance to
constructive amnesia’ (Longley, 2001, p. 253) that is required to move on as a society and
create new, unifying narratives. It has been argued that the process of heritage- and
community-building is often ‘as much about forgetting the past as commemorating it’
(Graham, 2000, p. 77). ‘Constructive amnesia’ should not be confused with forgetting past
wrongs and present-day inequalities, but as a basis for a cross-communal narrative and an
alternative common identity. GoT’s diegetic heritage has provided such a new narrative
that is not tied to the Troubles or any other dissonant heritage that might be engrained in
the Northern Irish landscape, even if it is one entirely based on fiction:
If it takes a TV show, a made-up, fictional land to highlight the beautiful areas here that aren’t
peace-walls and graffiti and bombs and all of that, then I am all for it. [. . .] Because it is
showing some of the best and most beautiful things that we have in Northern Ireland.
(Sarah Sharp, Castle Ward 14.06.2018)

This wish for such ‘constructive amnesia’ was highlighted by several local informants.
Paul, a local photographer, pointed out that ‘there’s a whole generation who doesn’t have
any historical memory of [the Troubles]’ (Paul from Antrim, Ballintoy Harbour, 01.07.2018).
Similarly, Richard quoted his son who sees a hinderance in clinging on to this past conflict,
as it is ‘ancient history that has nothing to do with [them], that stops [them] from being
European, global people’ (Richard, Bangor 09.05.2019). For most who grew up post-Good
Friday Agreement, the Troubles appear to be almost as mythical and fictional as the world
of Westeros, more an obstacle to their identity than being part of it.
Some might argue that this reimagining of the Northern Irish landscape through
popular culture might overshadow and trivialize its ‘real’ heritage or, even worse, white­
wash the troubled past and present-day issues and see it as part of the neoliberal
commodification of Northern Ireland (e. g. Kelly, 2012; Ramsey, 2013). However, the
heritage of the Troubles and its political and economic exploitation through tourism
and bargaining chip in Brexit negotiations has not only commodified and entrenched
16 C. DOPPELHOFER

Figure 5. Destination marketing poster photographed in Belfast.

collective trauma, but it also created an all-encompassing image of Northern Ireland as an

intrinsically violent and undesirable space, making conflict its one defining feature. In
contrast, the reimagining through GoT and experiencing Northern Ireland through a
‘Westeros lens’ has opened its heritage landscapes for multiple readings, showcasing its
plurality and beauty, rather than perpetuating the conflict.
Although the palimpsestic nature of places, spaces and heritage landscapes has
long been acknowledged and shown that heritage is a continuously expanding
assemblage (cf. Crang, 1996; Macdonald, 2009; Smith, 2006), the case of GoT and
its filming locations demonstrates how modern popular culture has immensely
accelerated these processes of adding new layers of meaning and engagement
onto heritage landscapes. Once a story has attached itself firmly to a place through
visual, performative or narrative repetition, it is difficult, if not impossible, to remove
it – ‘places remember’ and retain traces of what happened there (Orley, 2012).
Whether those layers are ‘old’ or ‘new’, ‘local’ or ‘global’, ‘imagined’ or ‘real’, ‘inten­
tional’ or ‘incidental’ is not of importance to be considered heritage. As soon as a
heritage claim is made, used for a new purpose or a new narrative, another layer is
added to the palimpsest while the traces of all previous iterations remain.
The power of this reimagination of Northern Ireland is distilled in one particular
destination marketing poster. It shows a picturesque vista of the rocky coastal land­
scape of Larrybane and a tagline written in the iconic GoT font reading ‘Views to die
horribly for’ (Figure 5). Only a few years earlier, it would have been unthinkable to
promote Northern Ireland with such a slogan without immediately evoking memories
of the Troubles. While one could still not imagine seeing the slogan superposed onto
an image of Falls Road or Shankill Road, it has become perfectly acceptable for the
rural landscape of Northern Ireland. This should not be perceived as the entrenchment
of a dichotomy of the Northern Irish landscape between the troubled urban and scenic
rural, but rather a rebalancing of heritage narratives where one does not outshine the
other and diversifies the ways the landscape can be read. Even Belfast’s perception has
benefitted from this shift in focus, thanks to its role as production headquarters of GoT
and the creation of new, historically unburdened public monuments such as the ‘Glass
of Thrones’ windows and the ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’, making the Troubles but one
 SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 17

of many aspects of Northern Ireland’s palimpsestic landscape. Or, as a young American

man I encountered at Castle Ward and who had both partaken in a Black Taxi and a
GoT tour described to me:

Before I thought of the Troubles, which was kind of reinforced because we took a Troubles
tour too. But no, now [Northern Ireland] is also beautiful castles and scenery. And the people
are pretty nice.
(Brent from the U.S.A, Castle Ward, 30.06.2018)

7. Conclusion: A Dream of Spring in Northern Ireland?

This article illustrates how popular culture has become a significant factor in not just repre­
senting but indeed making of heritages. Heritage is still often falsely equated with deep pasts
and geographical cohesion, however, the case of Northern Ireland’s reimagination as ‘Game of
Thrones Territory’ illustrates that heritage-making is always a contemporary process that is
continuously renegotiated to serve contemporary needs (cf. Doppelhofer, 2023; Smith, 2006;
Tzanelli, 2014). In the case of Northern Ireland, creating new place-myths through GoT’s
imaginary realm can therefore supplement or even reshape previous (mis)conceptions and
help to overcome collective trauma and dissonant heritage.
In Northern Ireland, an internally divided community has produced a divided heritage
landscape that kept the underlying divisions and conflicts in the present (Crooke &
Maguire, 2019; McAtackney, 2015; McDowell & Braniff, 2014). However, projecting the
diegetic heritage of GoT onto Northern Ireland has tremendously impacted perceptions of
this landscape, both for visitors and locals alike. Previously predominantly associated with
civil unrest and violent conflict, which was further reiterated through a promotion of
Troubles tourism (Wiedenhoft Murphy, 2010), the pop-cultural reimagination has signifi­
cantly improved the country’s real-life reputation, thus, not only helping to overcome
negative associations but build new positive heritage narratives. The de-nationalized and
de-politicized diegetic heritage of ‘Game of Thrones Territory’ was finally able to provide a
new framing, a change in (self-)perception and a unifying narrative for Northern Ireland,
something the available national heritages were incapable of due to their intrinsic
dissonant and exclusive nature (cf. Graham & Whelan, 2007). Whether this new heritage
is truly reconciliatory remains to be seen. However, this case study shows how new
unifying heritage narratives and alternative readings of landscapes can be asserted
through a shared global media culture, detached from exclusionary identity markers.
Although questions of longevity remain, the diegetic heritage of GoT appears to
continue to be part of the perception of Northern Ireland and thus part of its palimpsestic
heritage. Indeed, although winter had come for tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic,
since spring of 2022, Westeros appears to blossom again. While marketing campaigns
have moved on from presenting Northern Ireland as ‘Game of Thrones Territory’, GoT is
still almost as omnipresent in Northern Ireland as it was in pre-pandemic times. Large
groups of costumed fans keep roaming the landscape, as indicated by daily social media
posts by various GoT tour providers. GoT interpretation boards are still present at filming
locations and fictional toponyms such as Pyke, Winterfell, or the Kingsroad for Ballintoy
Harbour, Old Castle Ward, and the Dark Hedges remain popular descriptors and geotags
18 C. DOPPELHOFER

on platforms such as Instagram. The ‘Game of Thrones Studio Tour’ in Banbridge opened
in spring 2022 (although with two years delay) and the ‘Game of Thrones Tapestry’ being
yet again exhibited in the Ulster Museum just in time for the premiere of the new prequel
series House of the Dragon in summer of 2022. All this illustrates the resilience and
continuing influence of GoT’s diegetic heritage on the Northern Irish landscape.
The production of the prequel series House of the Dragon might have changed its
headquarters from Belfast to London and set out to conquer new territories with its
imagination, however, as the tour guide Richard pointed out, ‘the words Belfast, Game of
Thrones, and Northern Ireland will always be linked. And that’s a very positive thing’.

Notes
1. Although these data and subsequent analyses are based on pre-COVID-19 observations and
responses, the overall conclusions remain valid as they are indicators of larger socio-cultural
trends in the creation and performance of heritage through popular culture and visual digital
culture independent from this specific case study. In some cases, such as the question of
lasting impact, the re-emergence of GoT tourism after the pandemic-induced forced hiatus
has even strengthened certain claims.
2. Tours with the ‘direwolves’ have been phased out in 2020 due to the death on one of the
dogs, the advancing age of the other and the disruptions of the pandemic.

Acknowledgments
I want to thank all my participants for taking part in this research – this article and indeed my PhD
would not have been possible without them. I also want to express my gratitude to my supervisors
for guiding me throughout my research as well as Alex Hastie and Robert Saunders for inviting me
to contribute to this special issue. Many thanks to the editor David Bissell and the three anonymous
reviewers whose comments and input elevated this paper significantly. Lastly, I want to thank Leslie
Quade for her encouragement, support, and proofreading.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding
This research was generously supported by the Durham Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship in Visual
Culture.

ORCID
Christoph Doppelhofer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4041-3673

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