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Parks and the outdoors in Belfast

7 parks, gardens, beaches and walks in and around Belfast.

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

Parks and the outdoors in Belfast

  1. See

    Botanic Gardens

    Established in 1828 and becoming a public park from 1895, this is an extensive leafy green space, popular with office workers and students from nearby QUB. The Palm House, completed in 1840, is an elegant cast-iron glasshouse by Lanyon and Turner (who went on to build similar glasshouses at Kew, London and Glasnevin, Dublin) with a cool and a tropical section. Near it is the Tropical Ravine House, where visitors walk around a raised balcony observing tropical flora and fauna. There are also extensive lawns, a herbaceous border as long as the Zambezi, a rose garden and woodlands. Presiding over the main entrance is a statue of Lord Kelvin.

    Daily 07:30-duskFree

  2. Eat

    Lee Garden

    Reliably good place, especially good value for lunch and dim sum.

    Daily noon-10PM

  3. Drink

    Limelight

    Katy Daly's

    Standard pub early evening, then late night there are four music and club areas: Katy's the main bar, Limelight 1 and 2, and the rooftop Rock Garden.

    Mon Wed Thu 10PM-2AM, Fri Sat 5PM-2AM

  4. 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

  5. Do

    Waterfront Hall

    Large events venue on the west bank of the river, see website for upcoming shows.

  6. See Not mapped

    Milltown Cemetery

    Best known for its republican burials, but its range is far broader. It too opened in 1869 to receive the city's growing Catholic population, and its "poor grounds" hold some 80,000, many of them casualties of the 1919 flu pandemic. There is also a mass grave for casualties of the 1941 Blitz, Commonwealth war graves, and a Priests Row of leading RC clerics. The Republican plot, beneath the Irish tricolour, holds paramilitaries and other activists killed in conflict or dying in jail (including the 1981 hunger strikers), and there's a memorial garden. Other republicans lie in their separate plots around the graveyard. But not necessarily "rest in peace": in March 1988 at the funeral of those shot dead in their attempted bomb attack on Gibraltar, a loyalist attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistol fire. Three mourners were killed and 60 were injured.

    Daily 9AM-4PM

  7. Drink Not mapped

    The Botanic Inn

    The Bot

    This bar near QUB is popular with students. Downstairs is a large bar with live sport, upstairs has a night club. Good food and drink.

    Mon-Thu noon-midnight, Fri-Sun noon-midnight

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