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  ====Winterfell====
  Winterfell is the ancestral castle of House Stark and was built over a natural hot spring. Scalding water runs through the castle walls and warms its halls and rooms. There are several open pools where heated water collects within the godswood. The hot spring also prevents the ground from freezing. The castle has deep catacombs where bodies of the Starks are entombed behind statues in their likeness with a direwolf at their feet and their swords left in their hands. The tombs have been used since the old kings of the North, known as the Kings of Winter, were in power. They ruled before Aegon the Conqueror and the arrival of the Andals before that.
  To depict Winterfell, both the pilot and season 1 of the television adaptation used the 16th century clock tower and ancient courtyard of the Clearsky Adventure Centre located at Castle Ward in County Down, Northern Ireland, Doune Castle in Stirling, Scotland, which previously featured as Castle Anthrax in the film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'', was also used for exterior scenes. Saintfield Estates stood in as Winterfell's godswood, which is an enclosed wooded area where characters can worship the old gods beside trees with faces carved in their bark. A car park stood in for Winterfell's courtyard, and a wine cellar was used to depict the Stark family crypt. Tollymore Forest featured prominently in the prologue of the pilot episode and in the pivotal scene where the Starks first find the direwolves. Cairncastle, meanwhile, served as the location where Ned Stark beheads the deserter Will." The interior of Winterfell, such as the Tower of the First Keep, the Great Hall, and Catelyn's bedchamber, were filmed at The Paint Hall studio. Set designer Gemma Jackson said, "Winterfell was based on a Scottish castle."