I’ve been a bit carried away with Burns and Scott lately, so I thought it was time to get back to Belfast, a wonderful city that has transformed itself in the last twenty years from a bleak, barbed-wire-encircled fortress to a vibrant hub of arts and culture. We will have free time there, and while you can use guidebooks and the Internet to find things to do and restaurants to try, I’m going to tell you about a few of my favorite ways to spend time in Northern Ireland’s capital.

I first visited Belfast in January of 1998. The Belfast or Good Friday Peace Agreement was not yet signed (that would happen in March of that year), but a cease-fire had been in place for four years, and the city had already made a slight turn towards peacetime.

But there were still many signs of conflict. Big, hefty, stern bouncer-types stood at the door to every shop in central Belfast and beyond: they weren’t there to weed out the riff-raff but to prevent bombs from being left in innocuous looking shopping bags. The tank-like vehicles that patrolled the streets—these Shorland modified Landrovers were designed for Belfast and the Royal Irish Constabulary—gave the impression of a city under siege. I could not find a postcard, a tee shirt, a pencil or a coffee mug with the word “Belfast” on it, much less a tourist map. With the US government still warning citizens not to travel to Northern Ireland and Belfast’s image as a no-go zone, tourism didn’t really exist. Whenever I mentioned traveling to Northern Ireland, people grimaced and shook their heads.

 

Twenty years later, Lonely Planet named “Belfast and the Causeway Coast” number one on its list of “Top Ten Regions to Visit in 2018.” Gaudy souvenir shops are starting to blight city’s streets. Three “Hop-on / Hop-off” tour bus companies vie for passengers. You can download an App on your phone that gives you a tour of Literary Belfast. Ideas for new touristic sites abound. In 2012 a museum commemorating the building of the Titanic in Belfast opened on the centenary of its sinking, a concept that is filled with delicious irony. “She Was Okay When She Left Here!” is the cheerful motto of a nearby tour company.

A prison that played a role in The Troubles has been refurbished and is now open for business. In addition to offering regular tours during the day, the Crumlin Road Gaol has “Paranormal” tours and “Paranormal Investigation” experiences at night; it’s also a venue for rock concerts, which were unthinkable before 1998. Fine dining establishments are popping up everywhere, and the culture hungry Belfastians (Belfasters? There is no official word for them.) can attend concerts at the elegant Waterfront Concert Hall and many other venues across the city.

There’s even an ice hockey team—a sport unknown in Ireland until recently. In a place where everything is politicized, promoters thought a “foreign” sport might offer an evening of yelling for your team that didn’t evolve into sectarian strife. The existing sports were strictly partisan: Gaelic football and hurling matches were associated with Republicanism, and association football and cricket were associated with Loyalism. Rugby, interestingly, started out as a purely British sport but has recently developed more universal appeal.

There were many jokes about what the Belfast ice hockey team should be named. “The Belfast Bombers” had a certain ring to it, but a more peaceful name—the Belfast Giants—was eventually chosen. The name has meaning in the city because a natural formation on Cave Hill, flanking the city on the west, looks like the profile of a gigantic man’s face as he lies on his back (see the photo at the top). It is said that when Jonathan Swift was serving as a clergyman in Belfast, he saw the “sleeping giant” in the hills and got the idea for Gulliver’s Travels.

Here’s a list in no particular order of my favorite things to do when in Belfast. I’ve left out the places that are already on our itinerary.

Hop-on / Hop-off Bus Tour
They are a bit hokey sometimes, but don’t sniff at the hop-on / hop-off bus tours of the city. It’s fun to ride on the top of a double decker bus, and you have time to look about and really get the feel of the city. The buses take you up to the Titanic quarter and museum, Belfast Castle on Cave Hill, the Crumlin Road Gaol just outside the city centre, all worth a “hop-off” for a tour. Belfast City Sightseeing seems to be the one to use, and the tour with no hops-off takes about 90 minutes. There are stops throughout the city and near our hotel. I have heard that when these tours started, anxious sectarians from both sides road the bus incognito to spy on the guides and challenge their narration. When I last road the bus, I found the narration pretty even-handed and quite interesting.

Mount Stewart
Mount Stewart is a splendid mansion about 25 minutes by car from Belfast (a taxi will cost you $50-60 each way), or one hour by bus (Line 10, $6-$9). If you love houses and the decorative arts (I do!) or gardens (ditto), this would be a great place to spend an afternoon. The home of the Marquesses of Londonderry, the estate is now run by the National Trust. It has been recently restored with many more rooms open to the public. Set in a beautiful location on Strangford Lough, the neoclassical house has many quirky and wonderful features and stunning collections of furniture, china, silver, and paintings. You could spend your entire afternoon in the garden (I have), which has both formal and informal sections and includes a Temple of the Winds, extensive topiary, a rose garden, the Dodo Terrace (fanciful creatures in topiary and stone), Italian and Spanish gardens, a sunken garden, and woodland walks.

Queen’s University, the Botanic Gardens, and the Ulster Museum
Our Belfast hotel is a few blocks from Queens’ University, which has a beautiful campus, some elegant buildings, and lots to see. The Botanic Gardens is adjacent to the university and has 28 acres with paths and an early Victorian glasshouse called the Palm House designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, who also designed parts of the university—college Gothic on steroids! The Palm House is home to tropical plants and birds and makes a welcoming retreat on rainy days. The Ulster Museum is located at the edge of the park; it houses exceptional collections of art, history, and natural sciences.

Donegall Place
Donegall Place (north side of City Hall), the streets that lead off from it, and the area on the other sides of City Hall comprise Belfast’s main shopping area. Even if shopping is not your thing, this is a great area for wandering and people watching. The Victorian facades belie the fact that Belfast city centre was heavily bombed during World War II, and the facades are just that—supported by rebuilt structures. There are often fairs and vendors on the grounds of City Hall, and you might even catch a mini protest at the front or back gates.

 

Traditional Pub Crawl
Belfast has a fantastic collection of historic pubs that really give you insight into the city’s Victorian past and more. A list of 10 Pubs: Traditional Irish Pub Crawl takes you on a unique tour, all in walking distance from each other. If you’re interested in architecture, atmosphere, characters, or beer and spirits, a visit to even a few of these pubs would be worthwhile, and of course you can do your crawl from lunchtime to closing. Many of these places also serve excellent pub-style food.

Victoria Square Victoria Square Shopping Centre is in the heart of Belfast near City Hall. About ten years old, the centre definitely is a “peace dividend,” reflecting the change in people’s attitudes about spending time in downtown Belfast. It has all sorts of American and British stores that will be familiar and a few others, but the best part about it is not the shopping. “The Dome” atop the mall is made of glass and offers a 360˚ view of the city, worth seeing in rain or shine (but not in fog, and not in high wind when it closes).

Cathedral Quarter
This part of Belfast located a few blocks north of the city center is being developed as an arts site. It has a couple of small theatres and arts venues, shops, a literary pub named after the poet John Hewitt, and other interesting buildings. St. Anne’s or Belfast Cathedral (Church of Ireland) gives the quarter its name and is worth a visit. The sole tomb in the cathedral is that of Lord Edward Carson, hero to Unionists but blamed for intensifying sectarianism

in Northern Ireland, something he is supposed to have been uneasy about. He defended the Marquess of Queensbury in the Oscar Wilde trial and played a role in the “Winslow boy” case (there’s a famous play about it). Across from the cathedral, there’s a plaza with quotations from famous Irish writers etched on the pavement.

A Few More Thoughts…
I’ve not yet visited the Irish Republican History Museum, but it sounds interesting and would very likely represent the extreme Republican position. A taxi or bus ride out to the well-preserved medieval Carrickfergus Castle will take you to the shores of Belfast Lough. The Somme Museum and Heritage Centre in Newtownards (bus or taxi) tells the story of Irish involvement in the great World War I battle and even has a mock trench system that you can walk through surrounded by the noise of battle. According to their website, “The Museum has increasingly focused upon the community relations potential of this shared history as a vehicle to further cross-community and cross-border contact, mutual understanding and reconciliation.”