Belfast Travel Guide - Museums & Galleries

The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum: is one of Northern Ireland's foremost museums and is located six miles south of the city in Cultra. The two separate buildings focus on the lives and traditions of the local people, both past and present. The Folk Museum has over 60 acres of specially re-created landscape featuring shops, houses, mills, schools and churches.

Life during the early 1900s in Ulster is depicted through various activities and crafts. The separate Transport Museum has various collections including railway-related memorabilia, Irish-built motor cars, a horse-drawn cart and displays on the history of shipbuilding.
153 Bangor rd. Open 10:00 to 17:00, Mon – Fri; 10:00 to 18:00, Sat; 11:00 to 18:00, Sun.

The museum also has a notable collection of modern Irish art. Also worth seeing are the Irish mammals, birds, marine invertebrates, flowering plants and insects.
Botanic Gardens. Note: the museum is currently closed for refurbishment and will re-open in spring 2009.

Royal Ulster Rifles Museum: located in the heart of the city centre, close to the Cathedral Quarter, this small museum has an interesting collection of artefacts covering the history of the Regiment and the campaigns in which it has fought since 1793. Among the items are regimental memorabilia, badges, medals, uniforms, photographs, contemporary newspaper accounts and other wartime souvenirs.
5 Waring street. Open: 10:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 16:00.

It has exhibitions looking at the staunchly Protestant Shankill road, and the role played by Ulster soldiers in both WWI and WWII. Recent additions include the new British Red Cross Exhibition and the largest collection of Loyal Orders memorabilia in the world.
Glencairn Park. Open: 10:00 to 16:00, Mon to Sat; 13:00 to 16:00, Sun.