It is extremely difficult to believe that, up until 15 years ago, only local inhabitants knew about that remarkable road. In County Antrim, Northern Ireland, The Dark Hedges is a beech tree avenue that runs beside Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum.
The Stuart family planted the stunningly creepy avenue of beech trees known as The Dark Hedges back in the 1750s. That makes these gnarly trees almost 300 years old! The Stuart family’s tantalizing goal was to create a stunning landscape to impress its visitors as they approached the entrance to their mansion, Gracehill House.
The avenue has become a popular tourist destination as a result of the trees creating an atmospheric tunnel that was used as a location in HBO’s hit television series Game of Thrones. These days, the Dark Hedges have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena. You may notice the perplexing scene from the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” as it’s served as a setting for the famous Kingsroad.
There is a myth or superstition about the dark hedges that the Grey Lady is either the ghost of James Stuart’s daughter (“Cross Peggy”) or one of the housemaids who died without cause, or maybe a ghost from an abandoned cemetery under the fields who gets joined by other graveyard spirits on Halloween. The Grey Lady is said to travel the road and flit across it from tree to tree.
This striking place was a real gem of a find,” wrote photographer Christopher Tait. “Not in the guide books, but we eventually found a tourist guy who knew where it was. A stunning view of 300-year-old beech trees lines the road. Some of the trees have recently been felled as they were starting to fall, but it is a fairly magical place. The place is on a list of the top 12 road trips in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
According to a survey, the trees are in diverse levels of health and are susceptible to damage from severe storms. As the number of visitors has grown, the Woodland Trust has expressed concern about the impact of vehicle traffic on the trees’ roots, as well as graffiti and the daubing of sectarian slogans on the trees. High traffic levels may cause the surface-rooting trees to last less than twenty years.
