(The Guardian) When Stephen Gray noticed a dozen Game of Thrones fans, wearing helmets with torches, making their way in the darkness of a winter’s night along the road known as the Dark Hedges, the Northern Irish entrepreneur knew he had to buy the hotel and golf resort at its end. Gray was driving along the Dark Hedges, so-called because of the tangle of branches formed by the avenue of beech trees near Ballymoney, County Antrim, in late 2014 when he had the lightbulb moment.
After standing in for the Kingsroad on the hit HBO show the public road, originally planted with 150 beech trees as the entrance to the Gracehill House country estate in the 18th century, has become a global tourist magnet.
