Is the Doorway to Narnia in Northern Ireland?

Based on C.S. Lewis’ own notes, check out some of Ireland’s real-world fantasy locations. Interestingly enough, many of these places were also used as filming locations in HBO’s hit fantasy series, Game of Thrones. Coincidence? Perhaps not… Perhaps, Ireland and Northern Ireland specifically is simply a magical place.

The crumbling Dunluce Castle, which clings to a basalt outcropping in Co. Antrim, is cited as the inspiration for Narnia’s royal seat, the castle of Cair Paravel, described as “towering up above them; before them were the sands, with rocks and little pools of salt water, and seaweed, and the smell of the sea, and long lines of bluish green waves breaking forever and ever on the beach. And oh, the cry of the seagulls!” And in Prince Caspian, set hundreds of years later, the castle was in ruins – very close to Dunluce Castle’s current state. 

Dunluce Castle is along the 33 mile / 52 km Causeway Coast, and is in the vicinity of the fantastical Giant’s Causeway.

In a letter to his brother, C.S. Lewis said point-blank: “That part of Rostrevor [Forest] which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia.” Which is little wonder – while Carlingford Lough marks the eastern border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is also one of Ireland’s three glacial fjords and certainly a very majestic place.

The town of Carlingford on the opposite side of the fjord is also a magical place. Its fairytale castle, King John’s Castle, dates back to medieval times and certainly looks the part of a brooding crumbling castle towering over the shores of the fjord. The town of Carlingford itself is bustling, colourful and adorable.

It’s evident that the mystical Mourne Mountains helped to inspire Lewis in writing The Chronicles of Narnia. In fact, he even wrote about such inspiration: “I have seen landscapes … which, under a particular light, make me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.”

The Mourne Mountains are a wild and magical collection of forlorn peaks through which runs the 35km-long Mourne Wall, once built to fence off the Silent Valley Reservoir, though today it merely encircles the remote summits and vast valleys of the Mourne Mountains. The jewel in the crown – and tallest summit – is that of Slieve Donard. From its peak on clear days, you can see most of Ulster, down towards Dublin and possibly even Scotland.