Eight seasons, ten years of production and a filming area the size of a continent: Westeros and Essos do not exist, but Game of Thrones was filmed in very real places spread across a handful of countries. The centre of the series never moved: Belfast and Northern Ireland, home to the studios and most of the outdoor sets. Around this base, the production used Croatia for King's Landing, Spain for Dorne and Meereen, Iceland for everything beyond the Wall, as well as Malta, Morocco and even a short stop in Scotland. For fans, most of these places can be visited, often for free. Here is the complete guide, country by country, with a few tourist myths corrected along the way.
This article was produced in partnership with Trip-Planner.io, a tailor-made trip planner. If this guide makes you want to walk the Kingsroad or climb the steps to Dragonstone, the tool builds a complete itinerary in a few minutes in Ireland, Croatia or Spain, with stops, accommodation and travel times.
58 filming locations and 3 fake locations not to be confused with them. Click a marker or a name in the list.
All of Game of Thrones starts in Belfast. In the Titanic Quarter, the huge Paint Hall of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, where parts of the Titanic were painted, housed the main interior sets for ten years: the Iron Throne room, the Great Sept of Baelor, the Red Keep apartments, the High Hall of the Eyrie and the Great Pyramid of Meereen. The neighbouring backlot is also where a full-size King's Landing (streets, a large gate, the entrance to the Red Keep) was built for season 8 and set on fire on camera for the episode "The Bells". This is a common myth worth remembering: the destruction of King's Landing was not filmed in Dubrovnik, but in Belfast. The studios are still in use and are not open to visitors.
To see the real sets, go to Banbridge, 40 minutes to the south: the Game of Thrones Studio Tour opened in 2022 at Linen Mill Studios, where a third of the Northern Ireland scenes were filmed, and was built around the original sets that stayed there: the Great Hall of Winterfell, the Castle Black mess hall, the Dragonstone map room, plus the Iron Throne and hundreds of costumes. Online booking is required, and you should allow 2 to 3 hours.
And Winterfell? This is the big misunderstanding of Game of Thrones tourism. The Stark castle in season 1 is the farmyard of Castle Ward, a National Trust estate near Strangford: you can try archery in costume on the exact spot where Bran practised, and meet Odin and Thor, the two dogs who played the direwolf pups Summer and Grey Wind. But the Winterfell of seasons 2 to 8, the one of the Battle of the Long Night and its 55 nights of filming, was a full set built on the private Moneyglass estate: it has been taken down and there is nothing left to see. You can add Tollymore Forest, where the very first scene of the series (the White Walkers in the prologue) was filmed under tonnes of fake snow in the middle of summer, the Cairncastle moors where Ned Stark beheads the deserter in front of his sons, and the ruins of Inch Abbey, where the northern bannermen proclaim Robb "King in the North", a free site that is often empty.
North of Belfast, the Antrim coast has most of the wild landscapes of the series. The Dark Hedges, an avenue of twisted beech trees planted around 1775, appear on screen for only a few seconds (Arya's escape in Yoren's cart, season 2) but have become the most photographed Game of Thrones site in Ireland. Do not wait too long: of the original 150 trees, only about 75 remain, and storms regularly bring more down. Some fallen trunks were carved into ten doors, the "Doors of Thrones", displayed in pubs around the country. The road is closed to cars: park at the Hedges Hotel and come early in the morning.
The small harbour of Ballintoy plays Lordsport, the port of Pyke: this is where Theon returns to the Iron Islands and where Euron is crowned (Pyke castle itself only ever existed as CGI). A few minutes away, the Cushendun Caves are where Melisandre gives birth to the shadow assassin in front of Davos, and the old Larrybane quarry hosted Renly Baratheon's camp, where Brienne beats Loras in a tournament. Beware of the nearby tourist trap: the famous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, always included in "Game of Thrones" tours, never appears in the series.
On Downhill Beach, below the small Mussenden Temple, Melisandre burns the statues of the Seven and proclaims Stannis the chosen one of the Lord of Light; gas pipes had been buried under each statue to light the flames. Completists will add Fair Head, the cliffs where Jon and Daenerys walk on Dragonstone in season 7, the Binevenagh plateau where Drogon leaves Daenerys before she is surrounded by the khalasar, Portstewart Strand, turned into the coast of Dorne for Jaime and Bronn's landing, and Magheramorne quarry, whose 120-metre rock face painted white played the Wall. It cannot be visited, and the official attraction announced in 2019 was never built.
From season 2, King's Landing moved from Malta to Dubrovnik, whose walled old town on the Adriatic was a perfect match for the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. The city walls (the ticket also covers Fort Lovrijenac) were used as the battlements during the Battle of the Blackwater; Fort Lovrijenac, 37 metres above the sea, provided the walls of the Red Keep; and the Minčeta Tower, the highest point of the circuit, is the House of the Undying in Qarth, which Daenerys walks around looking for her dragons. The most popular spot is the baroque Jesuit Staircase: this is where Cersei's walk of shame begins ("Shame! Shame!"), filmed over three days with hundreds of extras. Lena Headey, who was pregnant, was doubled by actress Rebecca Van Cleave, with the two joined digitally.
Two gardens complete the visit: the Trsteno Arboretum, 20 minutes from the city, where Olenna Tyrell held all her private talks facing the sea, and Gradac Park, where Joffrey's wedding feast, the Purple Wedding, was set up. Further north, Split takes over for Meereen: the cellars of Diocletian's Palace, where Daenerys chains up her dragons, are open to visitors, Klis Fortress provided the walls of the slave city, and the small fort of Kaštel Gomilica, used as Braavos, is where Arya sells her oysters. Finally, in Šibenik, the Cathedral of St James, the largest church in the world built without brick or wood, plays the Iron Bank of Braavos.
Spain is the country with the most filming locations for the series. In Seville, the gardens and Moorish halls of the Real Alcázar, the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe, play the Water Gardens of Dorne, home of the Martells (free on Monday evenings with booking). An hour's drive away, the Osuna bullring hosted the great fighting pit of Daznak: two weeks of filming and more than 500 extras and stunt performers for barely four minutes on screen; the local restaurant Casa Curro still has a Game of Thrones menu. And in Santiponce, just outside Seville, the Roman amphitheatre of Italica (free for EU citizens) is the Dragonpit, where Cersei, Daenerys and Jon Snow hold their big meeting.
In Girona, the cathedral steps are where Jaime Lannister confronts the High Sparrow on horseback; the crew had coated the 90 steps with a mix of water and sugar so the horse would not slip. The medieval streets played Braavos and Oldtown. The Bardenas Reales desert in Navarre is the Dothraki Sea, where Daenerys is captured by Khal Moro's khalasar; Peñíscola and the Alcazaba of Almería took over as Meereen and Dorne in season 6; and the Castillo de Zafra, a remote clifftop castle in Guadalajara, is the Tower of Joy from Bran's flashbacks, where Jon Snow is born (the outside is open to all, the inside is private).
The Basque Country has the most spectacular Spanish location: San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, the islet with 241 steps that became the path to Dragonstone in season 7; the castle itself is entirely digital. Visitor numbers rose so sharply after the series aired that (free) booking is now required for much of the year. The nearby Itzurun beach in Zumaia, with its layered flysch cliffs that look like dragon scales, is where Daenerys finally sets foot in Westeros. In Extremadura, Cáceres was the setting for Euron's victory parade, Trujillo castle is Casterly Rock, and the castle of Almodóvar del Río, near Córdoba, plays Highgarden. Two corrections to finish: the Alhambra in Granada, often presented as a Dorne location, was never filmed for the series; and the Long Bridge of Volantis crossed by Tyrion and Varys is simply the Roman bridge of Córdoba filmed by drone and then reworked digitally. No actor ever set foot on it.
Almost everything that happens beyond the Wall was filmed in Iceland. The Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue, since nicknamed "the Hollywood glacier", was the setting for the Frostfang mountains from season 2; it was during this shoot that Kit Harington fell in love with Rose Leslie, his future wife. Around Lake Mývatn, the lava formations of Dimmuborgir hosted Mance Rayder's camp at -11 °C, and the geothermal cave of Grjótagjá is still linked to Jon and Ygritte's most famous scene. In fact, the steam fogged up the cameras so much that most of it was reshot in the studio, and the inside of the cave is now closed to the public.
In Þingvellir National Park, the Almannagjá gorge is the road to the Bloody Gate taken by Arya and the Hound, but contrary to what many guides say, their final fight with Brienne was filmed further south, in the geothermal hills of Hengill. The same care is needed for the canyon where the wight is captured in season 7: it is Stakkholtsgjá, in Þórsmörk, not Fjaðrárgljúfur. The perfect outline of Kirkjufell, the "arrowhead mountain" from the Hound's visions, never had an actor at its foot: only background shots were filmed there. The black sand beach of Reynisfjara plays Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, the eastern fortress of the Night's Watch (not Dragonstone, which is in Spain), and is worth a visit with caution: its sneaker waves are genuinely dangerous. Finish at Skógafoss, where Jon and Daenerys land on a dragon in season 8: the production "stacked" digital waterfalls above the real one. Jökulsárlón and Goðafoss, often mentioned, never appear in the series.
Before Dubrovnik, King's Landing was in Malta. For 37 days in autumn 2010, the production took over Mdina, the "Silent City": its main gate is the one Catelyn Stark passes through to enter the capital, and Pjazza Mesquita is where Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister fight outside Littlefinger's brothel. Fort Manoel, on its island opposite Valletta, is the square in front of the Great Sept where Ned Stark is executed, the most shocking scene of season 1. An awkward detail: among the heads on spikes in the final episode was a prosthetic that looked like George W. Bush, part of a batch of hired heads, which led to a public apology from HBO and a re-edit of later releases.
Fort Ricasoli, which played the Gate of the Gods and the entrance to the Red Keep, is still closed to the public: it is the island's go-to set for historical epics, from Gladiator to Napoleon. And the famous Azure Window on Gozo, the setting for the wedding of Daenerys and Khal Drogo, no longer exists: the arch collapsed during a storm in March 2017. Contrary to the legend, filming did not destroy it. The 2010 incident, when sand was cemented onto the fossil-rich rock of the site, damaged the nearby platform and led to a fine for the subcontractor, but the arch fell on its own seven years later. The production's move to Croatia was more a creative choice than the "ban" sometimes described.
Season 3 of Daenerys's story was filmed in Morocco. The ramparts of the Skala in Essaouira are those of Astapor, where the Mother of Dragons inspects the Unsullied; the Moroccan sun faded her famous blue dress so quickly that the costume team made several copies. The famous "Dracarys" scene was filmed at Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate, on the old Kingdom of Heaven set redressed as Astapor; the studios are open to visitors every day.
The ksar of Aït-ben-Haddou, already seen in Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator, plays Yunkai, the yellow city: the large gate from which the freed slaves come out during the "Mhysa" ending of season 3 was a set and has since been taken down. The site is UNESCO-listed, still inhabited and free to walk through. Another correction here: many guides present Ouarzazate as the setting for Pentos. This is only true for the 2009 pilot, which was never broadcast, in which Daenerys was still played by Tamzin Merchant. After Emilia Clarke was recast in the role, these scenes were reshot at Verdala Palace in Malta. George R.R. Martin himself had filmed a cameo as a Pentoshi nobleman in that unaired pilot.
Doune Castle in Scotland, the Winterfell courtyard in the 2009 pilot, is worth the trip for completists: already Castle Anthrax in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and later Castle Leoch in Outlander, it offers an audio guide narrated by Terry Jones and Sam Heughan. More unusual: from season 5, the direwolves were filmed near Calgary, in Canada, with trainer Andrew Simpson. His Arctic wolf Quigley, also seen in The Revenant, played Ghost, and Arya's reunion with Nymeria was filmed in Alberta. The facility is not open to visitors. Finally, the Meteora monasteries in Greece, regularly sold as "the real Eyrie", never had a single camera from the series: HBO did not get permission, and the Eyrie is a digital creation simply inspired by the site. No scene of Game of Thrones was filmed in the United States.
Want to take Westeros home to your shelf? Game of Thrones figures, LEGO and other collectibles are available from partner shops. Here are the current best-sellers:
Visiting conditions are given as a guide, checked at the time of writing, and may change depending on the season and the site.
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