The Ulster Museum is located in The Botanic Gardens in Belfast and has around 8000 metres of display space. The museum features collections of Fine Art, Applied Art, Archaeology, Spanish Armada, Local History, and Geology.
The Causeway was formed 50 to 60 million years ago when Co. Antrim was subjected to intense volcanic activity. The lava rose through the chalk beds and cooled to form the hexagonal columns we see today. The height of the columns mainly depended on how fast the lava cooled. Most of the Basalt columns are hexagonal but some are known to have four, five, seven or even eight sides.
Belfast Botanic Gardens is a public park occupying 28 acres of South Belfast popular with tourists and students. The gardens are situated on the stranmillis road, a few hundred metres from Queens University, with the Ulster Museum at the main entrance.
Crumlin Road Jail is a former prison situated in North Belfast. It is the only victorian prison left in Northern Ireland. The prison is a Grade A listed building because of its architectural and historical significance. An underground tunnel connects Crumlin Road Jail to Crumlin Road Courthouse situated at the opposite side of the road. This tunnel was ideal for transporting prisoners safely, quickly and easily to their trials. During the prisons opening in 1846 and its closing in 1996 it held approximately 25,000 prisoners.
The Harland & Wolf cranes, Known as Samson and Goliath are the two yellow gantry cranes, situated at Queen's Island, that dominate the Belfast Skyline and are trademark sructures of the city.
The following article about Dunluce Castle was kindly shared by a Northern Ireland Guide reader. If you have any old stories, folklore or otherwise, feel free to share them here.
All that remains of Dunseverick Castle is a small and unimpressive wall on top of a precipice that faces the ocean. You would never guess that a distinguished castle once stood on that spot and that the area was popular enough to attract a number of visits from Saint Patrick himself.
As a matter of fact, the wall that remains is the only part of the castle not destroyed by General Munro during the Irish rebellion of 1641. According to one source, the thick wall was the only part of the castle Munro's troops weren't able to demolish. I guess they weren't thinking of future tourism potential...
The ruins of Dunluce Castle have sat on the edge of the North Antrim cliffs for centuries, providing one of the iconic images of Northern Ireland. In fact, Dunluce Castle is one of the essential stops in any proper tour of the North Coast, alongside the Giant's Causeway and Carrick A Rede rope bridge.
It's widely believed that even before a castle existed on this site that it was some kind of pre-Christian fort.
