The Fascinating Monsters We Found at Belfast’s Ulster Museum

Vestiges from the Game of Thrones reign in Northern Ireland

One of the Deadly Dragons. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

I pressed 5 and soon the museum’s elevator door opened up to the fifth floor and I looked down at my feet to ensure that it was safe to step out. I then looked straight ahead and encountered this ferocious monster threatening to bite off my head.

But I didn’t scream. I didn’t faint. I didn’t even vomit or run away.

No, I am a photographer. And I stood there and took this picture!

Here’s another photo from the other side of the fifth floor:

All three Deadly Dragons. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

I was standing in front of those elevator doors when I shot the first photo in this post.

From my old Crow Canyon Journal blog: The dragons hanging from the ceiling in the museum are the work of Bob Johnston, the master basket maker at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra. Two dragons were exhibited at the museum in 2017 and a year later they returned with an additional family member. All three dragons are made from different kinds of willow branches that can be found in Northern Ireland. Bob himself maintains more than 40 types of willows in his Bangor garden in order to create masterpieces with his willow rods.

Here’s another view of the dragons. I was looking up from the lobby on the museum’s main floor.

Another view of the Deadly Dragons. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

Bob also created a willow version of the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones. It was created for the gala Season Eight preview and then donated by HBO to the museum. It’s on display just off the lobby on the museum’s first floor.

The Willow Throne. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

There were six of us in our group that visited the Ulster Museum that day in June 2019: my wife and I, our younger daughter and her husband, and their two kids, ages 11 and 13. We visited a few exhibits together but soon scattered, each of us wishing to see stuff that most interested us. So, that’s when I found myself exploring on my own for a while and decided to see what was up on the fifth floor.

My son-in-law is a true Game of Thrones fan, and he found the 77-meter-long tapestry covering the first seven seasons of the series fascinating. My daughter found everything related to art (with the possible exception of the tapestry) quite interesting. My wife and I most enjoyed the history zone that spanned two floors, especially the story of the Troubles on the first floor. And my grandkids spent just about all of their time in the Nature Zone.

I also kinda liked those dragons!