Game of Thrones: Searching for Dragons in Iceland

If you’re as big a Game of Thrones fan as I am, you don’t pass up the chance to take a Game of Thrones Tour with Greyline Iceland Tours. The only thing that could have made my week better would have been to see dragons in Iceland!

Laxnes Horse Farm

First of all, don’t mistake the equestrian breed in Iceland for ponies. They might be smaller, but you might upset someone if you don’t call them Icelandic horses. The horses used throughout the filming of Game of Thrones came from the Laxnes Horse Farm, about 15 miles west of Reykjavik. Some notable celebrities exist among the horses, including those ridden by Arya Stark and the Hound.

Unfortunately, on the day I went, Arya’s horse was out for a walk. But I did get to meet the Hound’s brown horse. Did you know that, because of the height discrepancy, you never see the hound’s feet when he’s riding his horse?

Laxnes Horse Farm

Þórufoss Waterfall

Our next stop was made famous by Drogon and Casanova. Þórufoss (pronounced Thorufoss) is where the dragon Drogon came up out of the ravine to attack the 20 goats and boy on the cliff. You see him burning Casanova the Goat to a crisp. While the dragon was CGI, the goats were real. They had to use a whistle to get the goats to all run away at the same time, although Casanova decided he didn’t want to run after the third whistle. His mistake!

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Þingvellir National Park

The “Thingvellir” National Park is huge and has been used in four Game of Thrones scenes, but one location is featured prominently. The Bloody Gates happens to be where the Icelandic parliament first met over a millennium ago. They used it for over 800 years, and then Game of Thrones used it as the passage into the Vale.

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Þjóðveldisbærinn Stöng

Good luck trying to pronounce the name of this village. It’s actually only a couple huts, reconstructed from an old Viking farm, and the scene in Game of Thrones where Olly’s village is attacked by Wildlings. It was interesting to see how far away the waterfall is that Ygritte runs from. While GoT shows it happening in a few seconds, it would actually take several minutes to run across the landscape to reach the village.

Olly's Village

There was one final stop at a rock museum where we saw examples of obsidian (dragon glass). It wasn’t the most interesting part of the tour, but at least we got a bathroom break before returning to Reykjavik.

My biggest regret is that I didn’t make it to the northeast filming locations. It takes several hours to drive there, which makes it unfeasible for a one-day tour. Unfortunately, that’s the location of Grjótagjá, the lava cave where…well, if you know the show as well as I do, you know exactly what cave I’m talking about!

If you want to search for dragons in Iceland yourself and see all the GOT filming locations in this country, it might make sense to go for a reliable camper van rental.  It’ll be an experience for sure to bask in Iceland’s otherworldly sights and sounds (geysers and waterfalls included). Plus you can prepare your own food along the way to cut costs a bit in this expensive destination.

If you liked this post, don’t forget to read about the Game of Thrones filming locations in Ireland!

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