WHEN I was growing up Northern Ireland was synonymous with riots, shootings and bombings, with nightly footage of soldiers in the streets. Emerging from its violent recent past the city is building its tourist industry on what is undoubtedly a unique combination of attractions.

As well as the more obvious traditional sites such as the Giant’s Causeway, the province is now promoting itself as the launching place of a ship that sank on its maiden voyage, with the loss of hundreds of lives, and is even offering tours of areas that saw some of the worst violence during the period that has been dubbed “The Troubles”, during which thousands were killed.

And then of course there is Game of Thrones, which mixed fantasy and fictional history, and in which it seems almost everyone is killed. The seventh season has just begun, and it has proven enormously popular and is watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, many of whom are as obsessive about it as the devotees of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

If Harry Potter took Tom Brown’s Schooldays and added a dash of magic, then the secret of Games of Thrones’ success was to take what looks like medieval history, with lots of violence and sex – this is an odd society where they discovered the Brazilian before they discovered the missionary position, and then add dragons and other fantastical and supernatural creatures.

Many castles, right across Europe, come with their own authentic and bloody stories, but few can boast an appearance in Game of Thrones. It has added an extra dimension to dozens of places in Northern Ireland, which served as one of the principal locations, along with Croatia, Iceland and Morocco, for a narrative that interweaves several different stories, set in various strikingly different landscapes, from desert to the snowy world “beyond the wall”.

In my time I have been all over the world, but only once had I visited Northern Ireland and that was only to drive through it on my way to the Republic. I finally made it, staying in Belfast’s Europa Hotel. US president Bill Clinton stayed there, but its biggest claim to fame is as “the most bombed hotel in the world”. There were reputedly 28 separate bomb attacks there during “The Troubles”, which began in 1968 and finally, hopefully, ended with the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998.

From the hotel it it is less than a mile to the Shankill Road, a former stronghold of Protestant Loyalist terrorists or combatants, depending on your viewpoint, including the notorious Shankill Butchers. Their attacks on Catholics were so awful and indiscriminate that many on their own side were ashamed of them and it has been suggested that Loyalists tipped off the IRA where they would find their leader at a certain time.

Early one Sunday morning I ran up Shankill towards the hills beyond Belfast, then down through a gate in the wall that still divides Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. It was less than a year since I had run a marathon through another city that was for so long divided by a wall and is now a thriving modern European capital – Berlin.

The gate was open for pedestrians, though still locked for cars. I was now running back down the Falls Road, another name that echoes from recent history. Only then did I realise that the running shirt I picked up without thinking was not perhaps the wisest choice – it was the Alloa half-marathon shirt of 2014 and the brightest possible orange – not the best attire for a visit to an area that was once prime IRA recruiting ground.

I told a taxi-driver later who suggested that, if challenged, I could always say it was orange for the Netherlands – the European football championship was on at the time. I do not think he was being funny and his comment perhaps suggests that Belfast is no longer tied quite as firmly to memories of the Battle of the Boyne and William of Orange as it once was.

No one did challenge me and I stopped to admire the many impressive murals. There were depictions of everyone from Gerry Adams to Presidents Lincoln and Buchanan, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali.

"The Troubles" are still very recent, many families lost parents, siblings or children and “conflict tourism” is controversial. But Belfast is now reputedly one of the safest cities in Europe for visitors and pubs are packed at the weekend with revellers enjoying local ales and listening to traditional music played by groups that might well include a bodhran and penny whistle.

The city has invested heavily in tourism, with almost £100 million spent on the immersive Titanic visitor attraction. It opened in 2012 and manages to be both exhibition and theme park ride. A carriage takes you on a journey through a reconstruction of the Harland and Wolff shipyard and for me it brought to mind the ET ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

The old Harland and Wolff paint hall was transformed into a film studio and HBO built many of the sets for Game of Thrones there, providing a boost to the local economy, both in terms of direct spend and tourism. The producers were impressed by Scotland’s landscape and castles, but ultimately the lack of a studio here proved decisive and Scotland’s loss was Ireland’s gain.

The studios are not open to the public, but operators run tours to the many locations around Belfast, including the limestone cliffs at Larrybane; the picturesque little harbour at Ballintoy, which doubled for Lordsport on The Iron Islands; Cushendun Caves, where the sorceress Melisandre gave birth to a lethal shadow creature that killed one of the pretenders to the crown; and the Dark Hedges, an atmospheric avenue of ancient, twisted beach trees in County Antrim.

When I was there a Chinese couple were getting married. Hot on their heels came a coach-load of Chinese tourists, slowly making their way down the road towards us like the White Walkers in the series.

Much of the action in the early series was filmed at the extensive Castle Ward estate, on the shores of Strangford Lough. The farmyard was transformed into Winterfell, stronghold of the Stark family. It was from the tower here that young Bran Stark was pushed by Jamie Lannister. Rental bikes come with a map of around 20 different locations and technology that will spring into action and show you the appropriate scene on a monitor as you approach each location.

Visitors can dress in medieval costume and practice archery on the spot where Bran was taught. It is even possible to meet a couple of the direwolves that were adopted as pups by the Stark family at the beginning of the first episode.

In our universe they are in fact dogs of the Northern Inuit breed. No longer pups, Summer and Grey Wind are about the same size as me, but worth a lot more – they are apparently insured for £1 million each. And if I were to pick one highlight of my trip it was stroking these wonderful animals. They might seem ferocious, but in reality, a little like Northern Ireland, they were actually quite peaceful and charming, at least while I was there.

TRAVEL NOTES

Several operators, including EasyJet and FlyBe, operate direct flights between Glasgow and Edinburgh and Belfast, with prices starting at £30 one way. Stena Line sails from Cairnryan to Belfast, from £24 for a passenger and £79 for a car and driver one way. P&O ferries sails from Cairnryan to Larne in County Antrim, with prices much the same.