Filming at Doune Castle

It looks like Doune Castle will be the location where the first scenes of Game of Thrones will be put to film. According to this report from the BBC, they will be shooting there over the weekend. The report mentions that they will be filming in the courtyard.

This matches the reports coming from Louie Pastore and the other members of the Clanranald Trust of Scotland who have stated they will be joining the filming on Monday. Ran over at Westeros was able to confirm that they won’t be doing much fighting and will essentially be extras. Guards in the background of what I guess will be the royal parties arrival to Winterfell and/or the combat training scene.

It appears that the courtyard may not be the only part of Doune Castle they will be using though. According to the guy who posted the above pic, there were quite a few props being brought into the castle for the show. The list included stacks of furniture and faux dead deers and pigs. Ran speculates they may be using the Great Hall to film the feast at Winterfell.

UPDATE: Looks like GRRM has arrived in Scotland as well. My guess is he will be on set for the first day of filming.

UPDATE: First set photos have come in via Ran’s Twitter. You can’t see much, but at least it is proof they are actually doing this thing! Click to enlarge. Even bigger versions can be found here.

UPDATE: Bumping this post to the top since we keep getting more reports. First, a tweet from a Sean Bean fan who was at Doune Castle today, indicates that Bean won’t be on set until next week. Another set report comes from over at the Westeros forums. Here is what this poster has to say:

Popped in to Doune. Was rather cool – the Winterfell great hall looks awesome. Peter Dinklage was around, didn’t recognise anyone else, though apparently Ghost was there yesterday..

Filming is happening in the courtyard, the walls, a kitchen scene and the great hall.

UPDATE: Another report from another poster over at Westeros.

I went down to Doune as well – I can also confirm that filming was happening on the walls. The castle looked awesome – but anything filmed today is going to be wet… it rained all day today.

Filming is going on at Doune until the 30th. But that might include breaking down the sets.

UPDATE: The above Westeros poster, Loras, has uploaded two pics he was able to snap at Doune Castle today. The second one is a little hard to make out, it is a picture of the equipment in the courtyard glimpsed through a window in the outer wall. He has this to add:

I forgot about the box on the front of the castle (in my pic) – there is one on the other side of the castle too. I think that they are being used by camera men. The hall at Doune is big but not that big, by putting the camera nests exterior to the castle they can make the hall seem bigger and the crew can take up less room.

UPDATE: Ran has tweeted that he has heard through “a little bird” that Lena Headey was on set today with dyed blonde hair and looking “beautiful.”

UPDATE: Last update on this post. This report comes again from Westeros poster needle.

His (Dinklage’s) hair was blonde and longish, scruffy looking, very much as I imagine Tyrion. He wasn’t in make up or costume or anything – didn’t see anyone in costume really. He was hanging about outside the castle a fair bit.

Just to echo Loras, staff at the castle were lovely and friendly. It wasn’t shut off to tourists today which is how we got in (not anything to do with being a ‘long term aquaintance’ of GRRM, Ran!). Just luck we arrived when there wasn’t too much filming going on so we could wander around. Lots of film vans, and buzz about the place.

UPDATE: Ok last update, for real this time. A nice detailed report courtesy of Westeros forum poster, grantsensei.

Okay, so I popped in to Doune in mid-afternoon yesterday (24th). As has been said before, the staff were really courteous.
Dinklage was in the courtyard when I arrived, at that point we were being asked not to loiter so I went upstairs, turned a corner… and found myself in the great hall in Winterfell!
It was all set up for the feast, with tapestries on the wall and enough seating for about 50. It looked really cool – though as has been mentioned before in this thread, a lot smaller than I’d imagined. Went back down (after phoning my mates from Winterfell!) just before they were rehearsing a scene with Ghost – a very cute(!) white wolf puppy. I, along with the rest of the public were ushered away while they did the rehearsal, so can’t tell you anything about that.
Rehearsal must have ended then, because Dinklage left the set, chatting to (I think) Ron Donnachie (Rodrick Cassel). I think the glum looking (it was really cold and wet this weekend!) youth following behind in a hoody was Kit Harrington (Jon Snow).

• Published on 10/24/2009 at 12:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/24/2009 at 12:00 PM CDT