Ships and Walls, Prisons and Castles

Snapshot
Where - Belfast, Capital of Northern Ireland
Weather - fine
Steps - 12700 or 8km and 11 floors

We did not know very much about Belfast but after our visit we found out some rather surprising things. We knew the Titanic was built in Belfast and consequently they built a whole exhibition around it which really draws in the crowds. It is a rather impressive building and the display was quite good.

We took a Black Taxi tour around the Belfast murals. We were aware of the "troubles " that existed in Northern Ireland and particularly Belfast in the past but did not realise that there still exists a wall that separates the Loyalists (those that support the British flag - Protestant), from the Catholics , and the gates are locked every day at 7.30pm (3.30pm on Sunday). It is this wall that has murals on it that are ever changing depending on what they want to emphasise at the time. For example there is a mural depicting Civil Rights leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
The troubles still exist, although not in the sense of the IRA (Catholics) killing Loyalists (Protestants) and vice versa; but more in gangs and drug related problems.

The next day we visited Crumlin Road Gaol which was still in operation up until about 20 years ago and it was a very interesting tour about what it would have been like to be imprisoned here. When it went out of service as a prison, it was reopened as a tourist attraction by some former inmates (one of whom was the First Minister - like a Premier).

We had time to look around the gardens of Belfast Castle before catching the ferry back to Scotland and onto the southern area of the UK.Read more