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Museums and galleries in Belfast

10 museums and galleries in Belfast, from the big collections to small independent spaces.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

Museums and galleries in Belfast

  1. See

    Irish Republican History Museum

    Eileen Hickey Museum

    Museum in a former mill depicting the history of Republicanism in Belfast. Eileen Hickey was a Provisional IRA organiser within Armagh prison and amassed a great collection of artifacts and memorabilia relating to her side of the conflict. This is the half-history where 1200 Catholic civilians died in Belfast during the Troubles. You have to cross the city to the Orange Heritage Centre for the half-history where 600 Protestant civilians died - and both are correct.

    Tue-Sat 10AM-2PMDonation

  2. Drink

    McHugh's

    In a building of 1711, with a 100-seat restaurant, a basement bar offering live entertainment and the main gallery. Often has trad music.

    Mon-Sat noon-1AM, Sun 1PM-1AM

  3. Do

    SSE Arena

    Formerly Odyssey Pavilion

    This complex contains a 12-screen cinema, the multi-use SSE Arena, conference facilities, W5 science museum (see above) and restaurants and bars.

  4. See

    Titanic Belfast

    For a century this was the "T-word" in Belfast, even more than the Troubles, an unwelcome reminder of a catastrophe reflecting badly on the city. This exhibition, opened in 2012 in a striking modern building, has revitalised a whole city quarter and rescued RMS Titanic as a source of local pride, for its construction and its crew. You progress through the metal-bashing boomtown of Victorian and Edwardian Belfast, through the design, construction by Harland & Wolff, fitting out and test sailings, to events of the first and final voyage. Titanic left Southampton on 10 April 1912, picked up passengers by tender from Cherbourg and Cork, and sailed out into the Atlantic. She left behind a confident Britain that daily expected news of Captain Scott's triumphant return from the South Pole. The museum shows excerpts from films about her sinking, gashed by an iceberg that calved from a Greenland glacier about the same day the ship was launched. One myth that is nixed is the 1997 James Cameron film treatment, where patrician British officers near-as-dammit hold the Irish 3rd-class passengers' heads underwater while the gilded rich are helped to safety and the band plays on. In truth one group had even worse survival than 3rd class, and that was the ship's crew, many of them Irish. The final part of the exhibition has submersible images of the wreck, which lies in two pieces 12,500 ft / 3800 m deep off Newfoundland.

    Daily 10AM-5PMAdult £25, conc £22, child £11

  5. See

    Ulster Museum

    Excellent comprehensive museum, covering natural history, archaeology, history including the Irish conflicts, textile and fashions, and a large collection of art. The original neoclassical building was extended in the 1970s in a modern Brutalist style. It's part of the National Museums of Northern Ireland, who also run the Transport and Folk museums at Holywood, and the Ulster American Park at Omagh.

    Tue-Sun 10AM-5PMFree

  6. See

    W5

    Interactive science museum aimed at younger children. Booking essential.

    Thu-Mon 10AM-6PMAdult £12, conc or child £10.50

  7. See Not mapped

    Belfast Exposed

    Photography gallery with changing exhibitions in a refurbished warehouse. There's also an extensive photo archive.

    Tue-Sat 11AM-5PMDonation

  8. See Not mapped

    Museum of Orange Heritage

    Oranges don't grow in Ulster, so how come so many institutions and events sound like a Spanish street fiesta? Well, in 35 BC Roman army vets founded Arausio in the south of France, named for a Celtic water god, which grew into the city of Orange and became conflated with the name of the fruit. This museum picks up the story from the 17th century, when William Prince of Orange ousted the Catholic king of the British Isles and began Protestant rule. The Orange Order was founded in the strife that followed, and which has continued on and off for over 300 years.

    Tue-Fri 10AM-5PMFree

  9. See Not mapped

    Royal Ulster Rifles Regimental Museum

    This light infantry regiment was formed in 1881 and served in the Boer War, World War I and II, and in Korea. The museum is part of the Royal Irish Regimental Museums group.

    Tue-Thu 10AM-4PMDonation

  10. See Not mapped

    Northern Ireland War Memorial Museum

    Depicting city life during World War II.

    Mon-Fri 10AM-4:30PMFree

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Belfast (CC BY-SA 4.0).