According to those rules, guests are guaranteed protection from the host once they have ceremonially eaten bread and salt at the host’s table. Alas, the dragons I shall be discussing here are not the mythical, fire-breathing reptiles of the imaginary land of Westeros, but the dragonflies and damselflies of Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland – more specifically those encountered during my surveys at Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve (NNR). Even today, Edinburgh Castle, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourist destination, is the focal point of the Scottish capital. Eventually Bruce’s dynasty was succeeded by the House of Stuart (remember Mary Queen of Scots? In Game of Thrones, the secret to forging super-light and strong Valyrian steel swords was said to have been lost with the Doom of Valyria. Today we visited the Victoria Falls of Scotland (see above), the Museum of Gairloch (to the left) and had a great lunch and some coffee and pastries at The Steading Bistro . Watching the fractured map of Westeros in the opening credits, I wonder, “Who is going to die tonight?”. And yet, because the story of the battle is so well told and just the name Culloden resonates so deeply in Scottish history, one takes away an unsettled feeling. Well today we went to a place as far from Kings Landing and Cerci as you can imagine but for this Game of Thrones fan, the real Wester Ross is much much better. It is not to be confused with “Westeros,” a fictional continent in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” However, Actor Rory McCann, known as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, born and raised in Glasgow, moors his sailboat in Wester Ross! And many a … Learn how your comment data is processed. It is an empty land of elemental magnificence, the rugged epitome of Landseer’s romanticized Scotland. Even the name Westeros is stylized after Wester Ross, a region of territory in the North West Highlands of Scotland. Wester Ross Fisheries owner, Gilpin Bradley, with one of their Morefield Estate salmon. Built atop an extinct volcano, the cold imposing rooms of the impenetrable fortress have been the sites for centuries worth of intrigue. ), religious turmoil, uprisings, palace intrigues, scandals, retribution, bloody murders, and ultimately English rule. Home of Syrio Forel, First Sword of Braavos and Arya's fencing teacher. | Design by Booyah Creative. 1 year ago. The southwesternmost part of Ross and Cromarty, Lochalsh, is not … The continent of Westeros is long and relatively narrow, extending from Dorne in the south to the lands beyond the Wall. Could it have inspired George R. R. Martin, the American author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the series of novels that spawned the hit TV series? As an American I’ve always seen the history of the British Isles as a bloody game of thrones. The Roman walls, of course, were stone, not ice, like The Wall that separates the civilized world from the dreaded White Walkers and their army of the undead in Game of Thrones. Not content to win the battle and crush the Jacobites, the British marched north, killing thousands more, raping women and burning villages. She’s a better actress, though. Since our trip to Scotland I’d been anticipating savoring that sip of scotch when Game of Thrones began its next-to-last season. Few scenes in Game of Thrones stand out as sharply as the Red Wedding from the third season in 2013. Coincidence or art imitating life? Actually not just one wall, but two—the well-known Hadrian’s Wall and the lesser-known Antonine Wall built further north approximately along the line from Edinburgh to Glasgow, separating Britain from what was then known as Caledonia. The best I can figure is that Wester Ross runs from Loch Carron and the Applecross peninsula in the south up to Ullapool and just beyond, perhaps to Achiltibuie. David and I took a crash course in the convoluted succession of Scottish rule at the lovely National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Westeros in Game of Thrones = Britain? It's been a while since HBO's broadcast of the Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones and rabid fans are in a state of severe, prolonged, painful waiting until next year for the continuation of George R. R. Martin's bloody saga whose action takes place on the fictitious continent of Westeros. Wester Ross and Torridon. The dragon is taken as the sigil of House Targaryen. And then they killed THREE PEOPLE IN ONE DAY! Copious villages lay within this region, including Applecross, Torridon and Ullapool. Wester Ross is on the north coast of the Highlands, north of Skye. We just have to watch Game of Thrones to see what it will bring. Still, this is the far north, and so while the palette of the single … Wester Ross in the western Highlands sounded a lot like Westeros. We drove to Glencoe from the Isle of Skye on a dark and drippy day. According to semi-canon sources, Westeros is similar in size to South America. The incident has been so seared into local lore that a sign on the door of the nearby pub, the Clachaig Inn, still says, “No Hawkers or Campbells.”. Martin didn’t invent this horrific massacre on his own. And a Howling Wolf, Wall, Hexham postmark (23rd January, 2018) Available signed by: Wilf Scolding (Rhaegar Targaryen) Ross Mullan (White Walker) with additional stamp and special cachet. The gory tale is well told in the visitor’s center with detailed explanations of who was who, artifacts retrieved from the field and an immersive, filmed reenactment that made me feel as if the cannons and bayonets were aimed directly at me. “Hospitality laws were real in Dark Ages society. Stars of Game of Thrones, Captain Marvel and new Netflix fantasy Shadow Bone spent six weeks in an "isolation bubble" filming in remote mountains and glens around Gairloch in the north-west Highlands. ... lands with rolling hills and plentiful fields. The Scottish info site describes it as a "synonym for remote, lonely, beautiful and wild." Naturally we had to see where each happened. The mountains of Wester Ross loom to the west, yet their stony grip is kept at bay. From Skye, I took the scenic coastal route through the region called Wester Ross, with a landscape so epic that it inspired George R.R. The surrounding region, a part of the northwest Highlands known as Wester Ross, is as desolate and awe-inspiring as the ‘Game of Thrones’ connotations would suggest. The Culloden battlefield is vast. The film was shot in an isolation bubble on location in the Scottish Highlands around Gairloch, Wester Ross. Legend has it that the Black Douglas clan was becoming a powerful threat to the king. By violating that law, the phrase is, they ‘condemn themselves for all time,’” Martin told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. Martin for plagiarism. Several Game of Thrones’ principal rivals, with their legitimate but imperfect claims to the Iron Throne of Westeros, suggest Prince Charlie. Thousands of Highlanders lay dead. I keep looking out for when they go through Achnasheen. We should sue George R.R. Our ‘Scottish Highlands Guru’; Richard, will be sharing his favourite ‘staycation’ with us! Discover (and save!) 3.8K views In one case the hosts killed the guests; in the other, the guests turned on their hosts. In a betrayal that seems to come from nowhere, Martin suddenly killed off key members of the Stark family, destroying the characters we bonded with most closely. An event called the Black Dinner took place in 1440, when 16-year-old William, the 6th Earl of Douglas, and his younger brother were invited to dine with the 10-year-old James II of Scotland. Yes, you read that correctly: There really is a Wester Ross in Scotland. Sometimes fictional history pales besides the real thing. The ensemble cast includes Chuku Modu (Captain Marvel, Game of Thrones, The Good Doctor), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Iola Evans (The 100, PHEA), newcomer Safia Oakley-Green, Arno Lüning and child-actor Luna Mwezi (PLATZSPITTZBABY). Game of Thrones single malt whiskies bring a bit of Westeros to Scotland. Your email address will not be published. Martin to steal the name for Game of Thrones’ Westeros. This betrayal flies in the face of ancient rules of hospitality—rules that Martin openly appropriated for his fictional universe. He was inspired by two very real brutal incidents in Scottish history. Next in our series, we are heading to Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands. Wester Ross is not to be confused with “Westeros,” a fictional continent in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” However, Actor Rory McCann, known as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, born and raised in Glasgow, moors his sailboat in the Wester Ross! We had to save our distillery tour for the next day. Wester Ross in the western Highlands sounded a lot like Westeros. In the far north are the frozen Lands of Always Winter, where a large amount of land remains uncharted due to the extremely cold temperatures. Not only did the Scottish clans continually battle each other, but the British kept trying to annex the Scottish north. That’s where Bonnie Prince Charlie—no, not our contemporary who is unlikely to become King of England—but Charles Edward Stuart, lost his bid to win back the British throne for the Stuarts, bringing an end to the 40-year pro-Scottish, pro-Catholic Jacobite Rebellion. Your email address will not be published. Winter is coming! One hundred thirty members of the Campbell clan, allies of the British, camped out with the MacDonalds for 10 days, and then, on orders from the British, violated all the laws of hospitality and slaughtered 38 MacDonald men. Game of Thrones for the Uninterested and Uninitiated Posted: June 10, 2013 ... ya know, *wink, wink*, it clearly is, because it’s in Wester Ross. The Victorians’ appreciation of such Highland scenes infects us still. Westeros is bordered to the west by the Sunset Sea, to the south by the Summer Sea and to the east by the Narrow Sea and Shivering Sea. If you are a Game of Thrones fan, you may be wondering if the area has any connections to the show’s ‘Westeros’ location. The Picts and Celtic tribes of the north, today’s Scotland, resisted the imperial invaders. Although no scale appears on the maps in the books themselves, George R. R. 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