Filming locations

The Game of Thrones TV series is one of the largest productions in television history, with each season filming on-location in multiple countries simultaneously. Apart from pure archival/historical interest, this article is meant to aid fans who may be seeking out ‘’Game of Thrones’’ filming locations as tourist destinations.

Overview
The main headquarters for the production is at the Paint Hall studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where most of the interior sets are located (such as the Red Keep sets, the Iron Throne, and the Great Sept of Baelor). The majority of on-location shooting also occurs in Northern Ireland – such as Castle Black, which was built as a fully realized set in and abandoned quarry a few minutes’ drive north of Belfast. Several exotic locations – particularly those outside of the Seven Kingdoms – are filmed in more diverse locales in other countries.

In Season 1, filming also took place in Malta for scenes set in the Free City of Pentos and in King’s Landing – to emphasize that the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms has a warm, Mediterranean climate compared to the cold lands around Winterfell. Filming has not returned to Malta since Season 1 ended.

Starting in Season 2, filming branched out to two new countries: Croatia and Iceland. The ancient Croatian port city Dubrovnik started to be used as a major stand-in for outdoor scenes set in King’s Landing. The scenic old city of Dubrovnik still has medieval walls right on the coast, which were well-suited to depict King’s Landing. Several other locations in Croatia nearby Dubrovnik were also used, not just for King’s Landing but for scenes set in Qarth and Slaver's Bay. Meanwhile, for the Night’s Watch expedition in the frozen lands beyond the Wall, location shooting moved to national parks in Iceland, to film on actual glaciers. Filming continued in Croatia and Ireland through Season 5.

In Season 3, production moved to Morocco to represent the cities Astapor and Yunkai in Slaver’s Bay. Filming did not return to Morocco after Season 3 ended: when Daenerys Targaryen conquers and remains in Meereen in Season 4 (the largest city in Slaver’s Bay), different locations in Croatia were used for it. Also, in Season 4 the location scouting teams found some other locations in Iceland that they felt were useful for other scenes set in the Seven Kingdoms themselves, not just north of the Wall. These included shots of Arya and Sandor traveling cross-country through the Riverlands, and scenes set in the high mountains in the Vale of Arryn.

For the introduction of Dorne in Season 5, the southernmost of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO decided that the success of the TV series merited spending the money to film in Spain and its historic medieval Islamic palaces – given that Dorne in the novels was heavily inspired by real-life medieval Spain. Filming is mostly concentrated around Seville to represent Dorne and its capital Sunspear, though there is also some filming in Cordoba to represent the Free City of Volantis.

Filming in Iceland lasted eight days in Season 3, as opposed to nearly a month for Season 2 (after the Battle of the Fist of the First Men most characters fled back south of the Wall, and Craster’s Keep was filmed in Northern Ireland). Filming in Iceland increased in Season 4, but in Season 5 was limited to mostly just a few landscape shots. Due to rewrites, the action sequence at Hardhome grew so large that, given limited filming time in the brief daylight hours in Iceland during the winter, the production team decided to instead build Hardhome as a fully realized set in Magheramorne Quarry, also the site of the Castle Black set.

Some filming for the unaired pilot episode also took place at Duane Castle, Scotland, but the production team did not return to Scotland for the finished TV series. Meanwhile, in Season 3’s “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”, a few shots of an actor-bear were filmed in Los Angeles, USA. Actual scenes were not filmed in the United States: footage of the bear was digitally put into footage of the actors in the bear pit set in Northern Ireland (due to various laws against international transport of large animals, the production team could not simply fly the actor-bear into the United Kingdom).

The TV series filmed simultaneously in two countries in Season 1 (Northern Ireland and Malta) and three countries in Season 2 (Northern Ireland, Croatia, and Iceland). Season 3 was filmed simultaneously in four countries (Northern Ireland, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco – five if you count that the stunt-bear footage was technically filmed in the United States). Season 4 was filmed in three countries at once (Northern Ireland, Croatia, and Iceland). Season 5’s production expanded again to filming in four countries at once (Northern Ireland, Croatia, Iceland, and Spain – though filming in Iceland was much more limited that season).

The TV series began with two main filming units that operated simultaneously, named "Wolf Unit" and "Dragon Unit". For Season 3, apparently due to the increased workload of concurrent filming in four countries, the number of production units was increased from two to three. The new third production unit in Season 3 was called "Raven Unit". However, a post on the official Making Game of Thrones blog in September 2013 revealed that Season 4 would switch back to having only two units, and the extra "Raven" unit would be disbanded.

These are the filming units, but it is not as if the entire production packs up and leaves the location when they are not actively filming. Work in each country continues even when the filming unit is not present, such as the considerable amount of time put into set construction. A series of Line Producers manage day to day operations in each major location, such as Christopher Newman, the main Line Producer for their home base of operations in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland

 * Paint Hall, Belfast
 * Magheramorne Quarry
 * Castle Ward
 * Tollymore Forest Park
 * Redhall Estates, Ballycarry
 * Ballintoy Harbour, Ballymoney
 * Shane's Castle, County Antrim
 * Sandy Brae
 * Glends of Antrim (near Cushendall)
 * Attical near Kilkeel
 * Downhill Strand, County Londonderry
 * Army, County Antrim
 * River Quoile, County Down
 * Gosford Castle
 * Clandeboye Estate forests
 * Toome, County Antrim
 * Pollnagollum cave in Belmore Forest
 * Saintfield Estates
 * Myra Castle, County Down
 * Larrybane chalk quarry beside Carrick-a-Rede Rope
 * Cushendun Caves, County Antrim
 * Banbridge
 * Moneyglass

Dubrovnik

 * Trsteno Arboretum - located just outside Dubrovnik.
 * Dubac quarry
 * Lokrum Island

Split

 * Diocletian's palace

Other locations

 * Imotski
 * Šibenik

Iceland

 * The glacier at Snæfellsjökull, and also at the glacier of Svínafellsjökull in Smyrlabjörg and the hills of Höfðabrekkuheiði (near Vík í Mýrdal) – used to represent the Fist of the First Men, as well as the harsh frozen mounts of the Frostfangs in Season 2.
 * A frozen lava field Mývatn Lake, near the town of Akureyri – where Mance Rayder’s wildling army camp was built in Season 3. The interior of Mance's tent was filmed on a sound stage in Belfast.  Building the camp took months of work by the art department, and weeks of on-site construction by the local crew, with filming at -11 degrees Celsius (12.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
 * Grjótagjá cave - The hot spring that Jon and Ygritte have sex in . The thermal pool is actually a popular tourist attracting and bathing spot.

Seville

 * The Alcázar of Seville - The Water Gardens and Sunspear, seat of House Martell in Dorne.

Other locations

 * Córdoba - Free City of Volantis
 * Plaza del Toros, Osuna - an actively used bullfighting ring, used for the main Fighting pit in Meereen.

Malta
Malta was used as the filming location in Season 1 for several of the scenes set in warmer climates, primarily King's Landing and Pentos. Production mostly centered around the town of Mdina:Mdina. Production did not return there after Season 1, instead shifting to Croatia as its main location for scenes set in warm Mediterranean climates.


 * Verdala Palace, the 16th century summer palace of the president of Malta – Exteriors of Illyrio Mopatis's mansion in Pentos.
 * The Azure Window coastal cliff formation on the Maltese island of Gozo - site of the Dothraki wedding feast between Daenerys and Drogo, set on the coast of Pentos.
 * Manikata - a farming town used as the setting for the village of the Lhazareen that is raided by the Dothraki.
 * Mtahleb Valley - a few minutes outside of Rabat, location of Drogo's funeral pyre and Daenerys rising from the flames with her newly hatched dragons.
 * Fort Ricasoli - the gate was used to represent the King's Gate of King's Landing: the gate on the northern side of the city that that the Kingsroad enters (before coming out on the southern side of the city).  Because the Starks approach the city from Winterfell in the north, we see their party entering the King's Gate in Season 1 episode 3, "Lord Snow".
 * Gate of Mdina - the gate that Catelyn and Rodrik enter when they arrive in King's Landing.
 * Fort St Angelo, in the Maltese Town of Vittoriosa - the dungeons of the Red Keep where Arya chases cats.
 * The Pjazza Mesquita in Mdina - the entrance to Littlefinger's brothel, where Jaime Lannister and his men attack Ned Stark and his bodyguards.
 * The cloister of the St. Dominic Monastery in Rabat - the garden of the Red Keep in which Ned Stark confronts Cersei with the truth about her children's parentage.
 * San Anton Palace - The exterior of the Red Keep where Arya recovers her sword Needle and kills a stable boy.
 * Fort Manoel, in the town Gżira - the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, for the climactic scene in which Eddard Stark is publicly executed.

Morocco

 * A few scenes in the unaired pilot episode were filmed in Morocco, but the southern production unit later moved to Malta in Season 1. Production returned to Morocco in Season 3 to film the new locations in Slaver's Bay, Astapor and Yunkai.  Production did not return to Morocco after Season 3, and from Season 4 onwards scenes in the third slaver-city Meereen were filmed in Croatia.
 * Essaouira - Astapor. The Unsullied are introduced in the city ramparts of Skala de la Ville.
 * Aït Benhaddou (near Ouarzazate) - Yunkai. Some of these wall sets were previously built to stand in for the city of Jerusalem in the 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven.
 * Daenerys's army camp was built in the nearby location of Little Barrage.