Downhill Beach

Closer Look at the Mussenden Temple at Downhill

Closer Look at the Mussenden Temple at Downhill

When I was browsing through the route for the Game of Thrones tour, one place caught my eye. That was Downhill. It was a place by the beach which is probably not different from a lot of places here in Ireland but there was a unique structure on top of the hill which made me want to go see it. We were walking along Downhill Beach making sure we got our footing right since the sand was a bit unstable because of recent rain. We had to navigate some streams which formed recently fortunately, we didn’t get that wet. And there it was, there was a hill by the beach and there was that round structure on the top just looking over the beach. When I saw it online, I was thinking that it has got to be computer generated but sometime reality is stranger.

Walking Along Downhill Beach

Walking Along Downhill Beach

Apparently, that structure is a temple, but we will talk about that later. This appeared in the Game of Thrones series as Dragonstone. This was where the Seven Idols of Westeros were burned. The photos of Downhill included the seven idols but there weren’t any when were there. If the temple on top of the hill was really there why not the seven idols, right? Perhaps I was foolish enough to hope that they would actually leave it there but maybe that is a good idea to boost tourism in the area. Just below the temple is a man made tunnel. I was wondering what that was until a modern train came through the tunnel. Maybe they edited out the tunnel from the series.

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