Ulster Museum

Lonely Planet review

If the weather washes out a walk in the Botanic Gardens, head instead for the nearby Ulster Museum.

Don't miss the Early Ireland gallery, a series of tableaux explaining Irish prehistory combined with a spectacular collection of prehistoric stone and bronze artefacts that help provide a cultural context for Northern Ireland's many archaeological sites. The exhibits are beautifully displayed - the Malone Hoard, a clutch of 16 polished, Neolithic stone axes discovered only a few kilometres from the museum, looks more like a modern sculpture than a museum exhibit.

Other highlights include the Industrial History gallery, based around Belfast's 19th-century linen industry, and the Treasures of the Armada, a display of artefacts and jewellery recovered from the 1588 wreck of the Girona and other Spanish Armada vessels. Among the treasures is a ruby-encrusted golden salamander.

The centrepiece of the Egyptian collection is the mummy of Princess Takabuti. She was unwrapped in Belfast in 1835, the first mummy ever to be displayed outside Egypt; more recently, her bleached hair has led the locals to dub her 'Belfast's oldest bleached blonde'.

The top floors are given over to 19th- and 20th-century Irish and British art, notably the works of Belfast-born Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), who became one of the most fashionable and expensive portraitists of Victorian London.

Note that the museum will be closed for redevelopment until spring 2009.