Things to do in Belfast

Belfast City Hall is the civic heart of the Northern Irish capital and one of the most impressive examples of Baroque Revival architecture in the British Isles, a grand domed building in Portland stone that dominates Donegall Square in the centre of Belfast and serves as the most visible symbol of the city's late Victorian prosperity and civic ambition. The building was constructed between 1898 and 1906, at the height of Belfast's industrial and commercial power as one of the greatest linen and shipbuilding cities in the world, and its monumental scale and exuberant ornamentation reflect the confidence of a city that considered itself one of the engines of the British Empire. The architecture of the City Hall draws on the Baroque tradition of Christopher Wren and his successors, combining a symmetrical Portland stone facade with a central dome derived from St Paul's Cathedral with flanking towers and corner pavilions in a composition of considerable authority. The dome, which can be seen from many parts of the city, has become the recognised skyline symbol of Belfast and appears in virtually every panoramic view of the city centre. The interior, with its ornate marble staircases, stained glass windows and elaborately decorated council chamber, matches the exterior in ambition and quality. The grounds of the City Hall contain memorials to several significant moments in Belfast and Irish history, including a large memorial to the victims of the Titanic, which was built in the Belfast shipyards of Harland and Wolff and launched in 1912. The Titanic memorial predates the larger Titanic Belfast museum by many decades and represents the earlier, more understated phase of the city's commemoration of the disaster. The rotating programme of events and seasonal ice rinks in the square makes the grounds a gathering place year-round. The free tours of the City Hall provide excellent access to the building's interior and its history, and the building remains the working headquarters of Belfast City Council.

Cave Hill above north Belfast is the most distinctive landmark in the Belfast skyline, a basalt escarpment rising to 368 metres at McArt's Fort that overlooks the city and Belfast Lough in a panorama that provides the most comprehensive view of the Northern Irish capital and its setting between the mountains and the sea. The hill gives Belfast Castle its dramatic setting and provides the finest accessible walking within the city boundaries, the combination of the basalt cliff scenery, the cave system that gives the hill its name and the extraordinary views creating one of the most rewarding urban walks in Britain and Ireland. McArt's Fort at the summit is the place where Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen are said to have made their pledge in 1795 to seek an independent Irish republic, creating a historical significance that has made the site a place of political pilgrimage as well as a natural attraction. The view from the fort, with Belfast spread below and the Lough extending to the sea beyond, provides the context for understanding why this plateau above the city was chosen for such a symbolic act. The basalt cliffs of Cave Hill, formed from the same lava flows that produced the Giant's Causeway on the Antrim coast, are home to peregrine falcons and ravens, and the cave complex in the cliff face provides the geological feature from which the hill takes its name. Belfast Castle at the foot of the hill provides visitor facilities and the heritage centre within the castle provides interpretation of the hill's natural and cultural history.