This weekend’s storm Arwen in Northern Ireland put a severe strain on the famous Dark Hedges Lane (a site famous for having served as the filming location for the Game of Thrones series). With strong winds blowing at over 140km/h, two trees in the driveway unfortunately fell… causing considerable damage…
It all happened on Saturday, when Northern Ireland was being battered by the dreaded storm Arwen. The violent, repeated winds quickly took their toll on the two magnificent beings that make up Dark Hedges’ driveway. The latter broke off abruptly, precipitating their fall across the path.
Immediately after the storm, images were shared all over the web. And the photos are a sight to behold…
https://twitter.com/DarrylUUP/status/1464491726664515585
As a reminder, this isn’t the first time a tree has been toppled by a storm at Dark Hedge. One tree had already been felled by high winds in January 2019, while others had been damaged by storm Hector in June 2018.
Dark Hedges – © adrianpluskota
The result is a driveway that is always magnificent, but which is gradually being depopulated of its most beautiful trees… A very sad phenomenon for the local population… A collective called “Save the Dark Hedges” intends to take the situation in hand, and protect the alley even further by maintaining the trees and better regulating access to the site (which is currently free).
A traffic ban along part of the road has been in place since October 2017 due to fears that increased traffic and tourist numbers could damage the tree roots. But that doesn’t seem to be enough. The collective intends to propose other solutions to watch over the alley…
For the record, the site has been a popular tourist attraction since it was used as a filming location in HBO’s hit TV series, Game of Thrones. Since then, the avenue has attracted thousands of travellers from all over the world every year to admire its trees with their twisting branches. A magnificent spectacle that must be preserved at all costs!
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