Eight Reasons to Visit Belfast

One of the great ports of the Victorian era, Belfast was, until recently, hardly synonymous with tourism. But following 1998’s historic Good Friday Agreement, which helped end decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, the city has been reaping the peace dividend. Regeneration is impressive, especially around the waterfront where the ill-fated Titanic was built. With the opening of the striking Titanic Belfast building on March 31, here are eight good reasons to put Belfast on your Irish itinerary.

1 Stormont Estate
Nothing symbolizes Belfast’s new era of concord as Stormont, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly (niassembly.gov.uk) since 1998. A processional avenue leads up to the grand neoclassical parliament buildings, sited on a lush hillside overlooking the city. Surrounded by gardens and woodland, Stormont draws locals who go to walk, breathe the fresh air and enjoy mountain views, wetlands, wildlife, flower beds and beautiful lawns. Tours are also offered of the parliament buildings.

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2 The Cathedral Quarter
Dating from the 17th century, the district of cobbled streets and narrow alleyways around St. Anne’s Cathedral (belfastcathedral.org) was once the commercial heart of Victorian Belfast. Semiderelict only 20 years ago, it’s now been revived as a cultural area and offers some of Belfast’s funkiest galleries, best restaurants and liveliest nightspots. Its most recent addition is the MAC (themaclive.com), a venue for arts, music, dance and theater.

3 Political Tours
The history of Belfast is a complex one. One of the best ways to discover it is by taking a black-cab tour around the former political hot spots of North and West Belfast, delivered by knowledgeable and engaging drivers. Several offer tours, but among the most popular is Billy Scott, tel: (44) (0)7798 602 401. Fascinating walking tours are also given by partisans from both sides of the city’s sectarian divide. Coiste (coiste.ie), a group set up to support ex-political prisoners, offers four itineraries with a Republican perspective on the Troubles, as Belfast’s four decades of political violence were known. Over at the Ex-Prisoners Interpretative Centre (shankillwelcomesyou.co.uk), guides offer tours from the Loyalist angle.

4 The Titanic Quarter
Belfast’s historic docks are undergoing an $11 billion refurbishment, the highlight of which is the new Titanic Belfast (titanicbelfast.com). This ship-shaped interactive attraction on the banks of the River Lagan is as tall as the Titanic‘s prow and guides the visitor through the story of the passenger liner from its construction through its launch and sinking on its maiden voyage in April 1912. Hear the din of the dockyards and the tinkle of silver cutlery on board, then feel the chill of the North Atlantic air, just as when the Titanic struck the iceberg that starlit night 100 years ago.

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5 Murals
Wherever you travel in Belfast, you’ll see walls and houses painted with murals depicting the history and legends of the city. Many murals, like those on the Falls Road and in the Shankill, commemorate events from the Troubles and depict heroes both Republican and Loyalist. Their creators include local artists Danny Devenney and Mark Ervine. If you tire of political themes, there are other murals around town celebrating Irish mythology and cultural topics. On a wall opposite the Duke of York pub, tel: (44-28) 9024 1062, you can spot poet Seamus Heaney, actor Liam Neeson, soccer legend George Best and musician Van Morrison among the painted crowd.

6 The Causeway Coastal Route
For a dramatic day trip out of town, take a drive along the 190-km Causeway Coastal Route, which snakes from Belfast along the shore of County Antrim, passing fishing villages, craggy castles and sandy bays. At its northernmost end is the UNESCO World Heritage — listed Giant’s Causeway (www.giantscausewayireland.com), a 60 million-year-old geological phenomenon of 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns, washed by the wild Atlantic surf. A new visitors’ center is due to open there this summer. Just 4 km away is the Bushmills whiskey distillery (bushmills.com). Licensed by James I in 1608, it’s Ireland’s oldest and runs tours, a restaurant and a shop.

7 The Queen’s Quarter
Founded by Queen Victoria in 1845 as a nondenominational alternative to Trinity College Dublin, which only permitted Anglican scholars, Queen’s University (qub.ac.uk) is the hub of Belfast’s arty Queen’s Quarter. The imposing Tudor-style university buildings are the setting for a good many of the city’s cultural events (including the annual Belfast Film Festival), but other venues proliferate in the area, including the Crescent Arts Centre (crescentarts.org)and Lyric Theatre (lyrictheatre.co.uk). Also nearby is the 11.3-hectare Botanic Gardens (see belfastcity.gov.uk, and click on “A-Z of parks”). Its 1840 Palm House conservatory predates the more famous one at Kew, London.

8 Victoria Square
Bang in the center of Belfast’s main shopping district is the gleaming Victoria Square mall (victoriasquare.com) with its 35-m glass dome — not the sort of thing anyone would have contemplated building during the bombings and riots of the Troubles. From there, savor a 360-degree vista of the Belfast skyline, including the Edwardian grandeur of city hall, the Harland & Wolff shipyards with their two landmark yellow cranes (nicknamed Samson and Goliath by the locals) and the wooded hills surrounding the city.

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