Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [509]
Just inside the main entrance is a small visitor centre ( 9097 5252; www.qub.ac.uk/vcentre; University Rd; admission free; 9.30am-4.30pm Mon-Sat, 10am-1pm Sun) with exhibitions and a souvenir shop. Guided tours (£5 per person) depart at noon on Saturday.
The university quarter is an attractive district of quiet, tree-lined streets. Georgian-style University Square (1848–53), on the northern side of the campus, is one of the most beautiful terraced streets in Ireland. Opposite its eastern end is the grand, neo-Renaissance Union Theological College (Map; 1853), originally the Presbyterian College and yet another Lanyon design. It housed the Northern Ireland Parliament from the partition of Ireland until 1932, when the Parliament Buildings at Stormont were opened.
BOTANIC GARDENS
The green oasis of Belfast’s Botanic Gardens (Map; 9031 4762; Stranmillis Rd; admission free; 7.30am-sunset) is a short stroll away from the university. Just inside the Stranmillis Rd gate is a statue of Belfast-born William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (Map), who helped lay the foundation of modern physics and who invented the Kelvin scale that measures temperatures from absolute zero (–273°C or 0°K).
The gardens’ centrepiece is Charles Lanyon’s beautiful Palm House (Map; admission free; 10am-noon & 1-5pm Mon-Fri, 1-5pm Sat, Sun & bank holidays, to 4pm Mon-Fri Oct-Mar), built in 1839 and completed in 1852, with its birdcage dome, a masterpiece in cast-iron and curvilinear glass. Nearby is the unique Tropical Ravine (Map; admission free; same as Palm House), a huge red-brick greenhouse designed by the garden’s curator Charles McKimm and completed in 1889. Inside, a raised walkway overlooks a jungle of tropical ferns, orchids, lilies and banana plants growing in a sunken glen.
ULSTER MUSEUM
If the weather washes out a walk in the gardens, head instead for the nearby Ulster Museum (Map; 9038 3000; www.ulstermuseum.org.uk; Stranmillis Rd; admission free; 10am-5pm Mon-Fri, 1-5pm Sat, 2-5pm Sun). The museum was closed for redevelopment at the time of research, but should be open again by the time you read this.
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 (see the boxed text, Click here) 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.
West Belfast (Gaeltacht Quarter)
Though scarred by three decades of civil unrest, the former battleground of West Belfast is one of the most compelling places to visit in Northern Ireland.