Showing 1-12 of 12 results
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Conway Mill
At the Falls, a few blocks away from the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, is Conway Mill, a 19th-century flax mill that now houses more than 20 small shops and studios making and selling arts, crafts and furniture, an art gallery and an exhibition on the mill's history. There's also the Irish Republican History Museum, a collection of artefacts, newspaper articles, photos and archives relating to the republican struggle from 1798 to the Troubles.
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Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich
The focus for community activity in the Falls today is the Irish language and cultural centre Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich. Housed in a red-brick, former Presbyterian church, it's a cosy and welcoming place with a tourist information desk, a shop selling a wide selection of books on Ireland, Irish-language material, crafts, and Irish music tapes and CDs, and an excellent café-restaurant.
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Fernhill House: The People's Museum
Beyond Shankill Rd, about 500m up Glencairn Rd, is Fernhill House: The People's Museum. Set in a wealthy Victorian merchant's villa, the museum contains a re-creation of a 1930s working-class terraced house, exhibitions detailing the history of the Shankill district and the Home Rule crisis, and the largest collection of Orange Order memorabilia in the world. Take bus 11B, 11C or 11D from Wellington Pl, at the northwest corner of Donegall Sq.
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Linen Hall Library
Opposite City Hall, on North Donegall Sq, is the Linen Hall Library. Established in 1788 to 'improve the mind and excite a spirit of general inquiry', the library was moved from its original home in the White Linen Hall to the present building a century later. Thomas Russell, the first librarian, was a founding member of the United Irishmen and a close friend of Wolfe Tone. Russell was hanged in 1803 after Robert Emmet's abortive rebellion.
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Odyssey Complex
The Odyssey Complex is a huge sporting and entertainment centre on the eastern side of the river across from Clarendon Dock. The complex features a hands-on science centre, a 10,000-seater sports arena (home to the Belfast Giants ice-hockey team), a multiplex cinema with an IMAX screen, a video-games centre and a dozen restaurants, cafés and bars. Kids will love W5, an interactive science centre aimed at children of all ages.
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Ormeau Baths Gallery
Housed in a converted 19th-century public bathhouse, the Ormeau Baths Gallery is Northern Ireland's principal exhibition space for contemporary visual art. The gallery stages changing exhibitions of work by Irish and international artists, and has hosted controversial showings of works by Gilbert and George, and Yoko Ono. The gallery is a few blocks south of Donegall Sq.
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Sinclair Seamen's Church
Sinclair Seamen's Church next, to the Harbour Commissioner's Office, was built by Charles Lanyon in 1857-58 and was intended to meet the spiritual needs of visiting sailors. Part church, part maritime museum, it has a pulpit in the shape of a ship's prow (complete with red and green port and starboard lights), a brass ship's wheel and binnacle salvaged from a WWI wreck and, hanging on the wall behind the wheel, the ship's bell from HMS Hood .
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SS Nomadic
In 2006 the SS Nomadic - the only surviving vessel of the White Star Line (they owned the Titanic ) - was rescued from the breaker's yard and brought to Belfast to be restored. The little steamship, which once served as a tender ferrying first- and second-class passengers between Cherbourg harbour and the giant Olympic Class ocean liners (which were too big to dock at the French port) can be visited at the quay next to the Odyssey Complex.
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Titanic Quarter
Belfast's former shipbuilding yards - the birthplace of the RMS Titanic - stretch along the east side of the River Lagan, dominated by the towering yellow cranes known as Samson and Goliath. The area is currently undergoing a €1 billion regeneration project known as Titanic Quarter, which plans to develop the long-derelict docklands over the next 15 to 20 years.
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Ulster Folk & Transport Museums
The 30 buildings on the 60-hectare site range from urban terrace homes to thatched farm cottages. A bridge crosses the A2 to the Transport Museum, a sort of automotive zoo, which contains various Ulster-related vehicles, including a prototype of the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.
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Ulster Museum
If the weather washes out a walk in the Botanic Gardens, head instead for the nearby Ulster Museum.
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W5
Also known as whowhatwherewhenwhy, W5 is an interactive science centre aimed at children of all ages in the Odyssey Complex - a huge sporting and entertainment centre on the eastern side of the river across from Clarendon Dock. Kids can compose their own tunes by biffing the 'air harp' with a foam rubber bat, try to beat a lie detector, create cloud rings and tornadoes, and design and build their own robots and racing cars.
Showing 1-12 of 12 results
