60 Mile Per Hour Winds Destroy ‘Game of Thrones’ Famous Tree

A tree made famous by HBO’s Game of Thrones has been destroyed by strong winds that swept through Northern Ireland over the weekend.

According to the Independent, the Dark Hedges, a tunnel of beech trees, was uprooted by gale force winds of up to 60 miles per hour on Saturday, causing one of the trees to fall sometime on the night of Saturday, Jan. 26.

Located on the Bregagh Road near Armoy in Northern Ireland, the trees were planted more than 200 years ago at the entrance to the Stuart family’s Gracehill House mansion and the branches grew over the decades to create a twisting canopy over the road. Originally, there had been around 150 trees, but that number has since dwindled to about 90.

The Dark Hedges was made famous after they appeared throughout the course of Game of Thrones Season 2 as the King’s Road, which runs from King’s Landing in Westeros and north to The Wall.

The scenic location first appeared in Season 2, Episode 1, “The North Remembers,” as Arya Stark escaped from King’s Landing and fled down the King’s Road disguised as a boy with Yoren, Gendry, and Hot Pie to safety.

The location has also appeared in a number of other popular series and movies, including Transformers: The Last Night.

Over the years, the scene became a popular destination for fans of the series, and even clocked in among the top 10 most-Instagrammed locations in Ireland, which may be to blame for falling number of trees.

“These are very old trees, but cars and buses driving over their roots has been a problem that has taken too long to solve,” Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Joan Baird told the Belfast Telegraph. “The vast numbers of visitors and the amount of cars is damaging the roots – it forces them to bend and squeeze in, which weakens the trees. We need to hurry up and build an underpass from the nearby hotel car park to preserve these trees and the tourism benefits they bring.”

While Baird may be looking for ways to urge visitors away from the iconic locale, there are still plenty of other locations from Game of Thrones that fans can visit.

In September, HBO announced plans to open a number of GoT filming locations for set visits following the debut of the series’ eighth and final season. Dubbed Game of Thrones Legacy, the sets of Winterfell, Castle Black, and Kings Landing are among those being set to reopen as tourist attractions.

Game of Thrones Season 8, its six-episode final season, premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 14.