Medieval Ulster – Beyond Westeros

The Beyond Westeros project sought to enliven and reinvigorate the public’s understanding of the Medieval period in Northern Ireland, utilising the region’s existing associations with HBO’s Game of Thrones as a means of better publicising our heritage for local people and tourists.

Around the year AD 1500 Ulster had thirteen Lordships and these powerful past rulers and their families played out wars and rivalries, alliances and marriages, betrayals, hostage taking and assassinations, not unlike the Game of Thrones television series. County Down in the 1500s saw a power struggle between the Gaelic chiefs of the McGuinness and the Clandeboye O ‘ Neills and the English – Normans who arrived with the White Knight, John de Courcy, in 1176, and who for a time dominated this landscape. Inauguration sites where Gaelic Kings were crowned, lofty monasteries, humble churches, castles, tower house and mottes all have a story to tell of these times. You can look up many of County Down’s medieval sites on the Medieval Ulster – Beyond Westeros Story Map Find out more at https://archaeology-palaeoecology-qub.com Medieval Ulster – Beyond Westeros QUB – Archaeology at Queen’s

Explore the medieval archaeology of county Down, the stories of the major lordships and the locations used to film Game of Thrones on the story map here