Shepherd’s Way is a broad cobbled thoroughfare in King’s Landing that runs eastward from Cobbler’s Square up the hill to the Dragonpit on Rhaenys’s Hill. Formerly called Hill Street, it acquired its new name after becoming the route of King Aegon II’s public execution of the Shepherd and his followers.

Setting and Route

The street connects Cobbler’s Square with the summit of the hill, leading to the Dragonpit. Its incline shaped the procession that gave it its name: the king’s litter travelled uphill between mounted knights, passing the condemned along the way before continuing to the top.

Renaming and Public Punishment

On the last day of the year, 241 of the Shepherd’s most devoted followers were bound to poles along the street. As the city’s septs rang in the new year, Aegon II’s knights used torches to set the captives alight, turning the route into a spectacle that illuminated the king’s ascent. At the summit, the Shepherd was bound among the heads of five dragons. Supported by two Kingsguard, Aegon rose from his cushions and set the prophet aflame with his own hand. The street was thereafter known as Shepherd’s Way rather than Hill Street.

Narrative Significance

The new name preserves the memory of a royal punishment in the city’s geography. The street’s ordinary function as an uphill route became inseparable from the procession and execution staged there: the king passed through a line of condemned followers before carrying out the sentence himself at the Dragonpit. Its renaming turns that journey into a public marker of Aegon’s vengeance.