Mývatn, Mystery and Magic: Game of Thrones North Beyond The Wall film locations

Day 1 Game of Thrones tour: After visiting the Goðafoss waterfall, my tour guide took me all around Lake Mývatn in North Iceland where we saw the sights and visited film spots from Beyond The Wall!  Locations were from scenes that took place in Season 3, including the beginning of the season where Sam had been abandoned by his brothers and was being chased by white walkers, the area where the wilding group was gathered when Orell the warg saw ‘dead crows’ through the eyes of his eagle, the place where Ygritte led Jon Snow off to the cave for their first romantic encounter, and the cave itself!  Well, not quite THE cave, but more about that in a sec, and the area where Mance Rayder’s camp was set up when Jon Snow first met Tormund and Mance.

The first area we went to was where Mance Rayder interrupted Orell from his trance (Orell is a warg and was scouting through the eyes of his eagle) to ask where he was and what he saw.  “Dead crows” replied Orell.  This area is full of interesting rock formations all caused from lava years ago.  This sort of landscape is common all over Iceland, at least in the northern and southern areas I visited throughout my trip.  It’s all snow covered at the moment (perfect for north of The Wall), but during the summer I’m told a lot of the ground is just black from the lava.

Next up was the spot where Ygritte, Jon Snow, and the other wildings were gathered just before Ygritte led Jon off to the cave.  It was a bit of a trek to get there, as there was deep snow and no fully cleared pathway.  My guide and I forged our way through.  Someone had carved what seemed like a rather ominous message into the snow, “Go Back.”

It took around 10-15 minutes maybe to hike into our desired area. We were actually looking at it from the opposite side from what is seen on the show.  The wildlings and Jon Snow were gathered in the enclave of the rock formations and when Ygritte took Jon’s sword Longclaw and ran off, she ran through the two pillar-like formations toward where we were standing.  We couldn’t go down into the enclave for a closer look, as there was no pathway and the river was in the way, so this is as close as I got!!

We went to the cave itself (Grjótagjá Cave) or as I am told, the cave where the Game of Thrones crew wanted to film Jon and Ygritte’s encounter but were unable to.  They had hauled all their filming equipment into the cave (which I went into and it was no easy venture to climb down due to the ice on the path, if you could call it a path), but as this cave contains a geothermal spring, there was apparently so much steam coming from it (not from Jon and Ygritte!) that it was impossible to film.  So (spoiler alert!) parts of the scene were filmed in front of a green screen instead, booooooo!  No steam coming from it today, but I did manage to reach my hand down into the water and it was nice and warm.  The cave was much warmer than outside as well.

Mance Rayder’s camp was next, along the Dimmuborgir walking trails.  It’s a bit hard to tell from the distance, as we did not venture off the marked pathway to go out there.  But Mance’s camp, right here!

And last but not least on today’s tour, the area where Sam was chased by white walkers at the beginning of Season 3.  It doesn’t look as snow covered as on the show, but this is at Námafjall Hverir, a geothermal area in Iceland.  All the mist is actually steam coming up from the ground.  I saw numerous bubbling fissures under the steam, probably not something a human would want to get too close to!  So the immediate area was a tad warmer than elsewhere, and I guess when Sam was being filmed here in all his Night’s Watch attire, the show makes the area out to be freezing cold beyond the wall, but it was probably toasty warm for actors and GoT crew alike.

That’s all for Game of Thrones Day 1, stay tuned for Day 2!