https://www.facebook.com/823461624444178/

Belfast Unlocked, Belfast (2026)

28/10/2022

📍Clonard Monastery ✨

📸 ✨

Built in 1911 in early French Gothic-style, and boasting a 6m-wide stained-glass rose window, this imposing church and monastery is home to the Redemptorists. This Catholic movement was founded in Italy in 1732 and its story is depicted in floor and ceiling mosaics.

Architecture 🧱 🏗

The interior also features red granite, Portland stone and marble columns. The crypt was used as a WW2 air-raid shelter and contains the bodies of over 20 priests - one of them the architect's son.

Festival of Faith 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 ✝️

Each June, Clonard Church hosts a nine-day Festival of Faith when 15,000 daily pilgrims pray at the shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. It is a spectacular sight and well worth a visit if you're in town!

Fun fact: ⤵️💡

In 1981 members of the Redemptorist community at Clonard established links with Fitzroy Presbyterian Church near Queen's University, Belfast in the south of the city and the monastery became a centre for peacemaking and reconciliation.

Secret conversations between John Hume and Gerry Adams were held in rooms in the complex while wider, interfaith conversations helped contribute to the 1994 IRA ceasefire.

Clonard is also used as a music venue for many festivals in the city, most notably but not exclusively Féile an Phobail. 🎶

04/08/2022

📍 The Great Mourne Wall ⛰✨

History 👑 ⤵️

The Mourne Wall was constructed between 1904 and 1922 by the Belfast Water Commissioners to define and enclose the catchment area for the newly constructed Silent Valley Reservoir.

Dimensions 📐 ⤵️
The wall is 22 miles long, 1.5m high and 0.8m thick and is constructed entirely of granite from quarries around the Mourne Mountains using classic dry stone wall techniques.

It encloses 9,000 acres of mountainous terrain and is designed to keep farm animals away from the reservoirs and rivers that flow into them! 🏔🐑

Fun fact! ⤵️

🔴 The Mourne Wall Challenge Walk is a challenging walking route following the historic Mourne Wall over seven of the ten highest mountains in Northern Ireland.

🟢 In 2013, an event's designated route was recorded by a participant as being 30.51 km (18.96 mi) with a total 2,527 m (8,291 ft) elevation.

🟠 Although the designated route of this event contained two significant diversions from the wall itself in the Silent Valley and Annalong Valley.

📸✨

31/07/2022

Titanic museum 📍

03/07/2022

Forecast: cloudy ☁️

24/09/2021

Views from the Stairway to Heaven/Cuilcagh Mountain Boardwalk, County Fermanagh 🥾📸

13/09/2021

📍 The Magical Pottinger’s Entry ✨

Thomas Pottinger exploited political and economic opportunities to become a wealthy and influential member of belfast society.

Alternative an established merchant and freeman by 1688, as a Presbyterian he was unable to advance politically. So, he singlehandedly secured a new charter from King James, which dissolved the existing city corporation and made him Sovereign.

Despite such treacherous conduct, he managed to regain public respect during the Williamite Wars. He protected city property from King James’ troops and gained favour with King William by supplying his army!

✨📸

25/08/2021

📍White Park Bay, Ballintoy 🏖

Are these the most photographed cows in Northern Ireland? 🐄

As they wander along White Park Bay, they end up in loads of people's selfies and, as a result, all over social media 📸

But they are not just there for an interesting shot. The cattle carry out a very special part of the conservation work around the sand dunes of the beach! 🏖 🍃

It really looks they were just enjoying a nice relaxing stroll on the beach 🥰

Fun fact: ⤵️

According to the National Trust, cattle grazing is a tried and tested conservation method that has been used in other areas of the dune system at White Park Bay to great effect, significantly reducing grass sward height and allowing rare plants such as orchids and winter annuals to flourish on the short turf. 🌿🌾

The cows belong to a local farmer who rents out some of the land that the National Trust owns near the beach, and the cows have free reign at certain times of the year to take a dander around.

This is a method also used at Portstewart strand to allow a variety of flora to continue to grow and amaze us in these special places. 🌸🍄🌺

📸✨

18/08/2021

📍Dunseverick Castle 🏰✨

➡️ 1¼ hour drive from Belfast 🚘

The history of Dunseverick is insane!

🔆🔅🔆

Dunseverick Castle is situated on the north coast of County Antrim, near the small village of Dunseverick and the Giant's Causeway 🪨

History ⚔️

Saint Patrick is recorded as having visited Dunseverick castle in the 5th century AD, where he baptized Olcán, a local man who later became a Bishop of Ireland ☘️

The original stone fort that occupied the position was attacked by Viking raiders in 870 AD ⚔️

In the later part of the 6th century AD, this was the seat of Fergus Mor MacEirc (Fergus the Great). Fergus was King of Dalriada and great-uncle of the High King of Ireland, Muirceartaigh (Murtagh) MacEirc 👑

It is the 500 AD departure point from Ireland of the Lia Fail or coronation stone. Murtagh loaned it to Fergus for the latter's coronation in western Scotland part of which Fergus had settled as his sea-kingdom expanded 🌊

The castle was captured and destroyed by General Robert Munro in 1642 and his Cromwellian troops in the 1650s, and today only the ruins of the gatelodge remain. A small residential tower survived until 1978 when it eventually surrendered to the sea below 🏰

Fun fact: ⤵️

It was a 'key' ancient site in Ireland.

One of the five great royal highways, or slighe of ancient Ireland, Slige Midluachra, had its terminal point at Dunseverick castle, running from here to Emain Macha and further to Tara and the fording point on the Liffey at what is now Dublin! 🆒

✨📸

17/08/2021

📍 Inch Abbey, Downpatrick ✨

➡️ 45 min drive from Belfast 🚘

History ⤵️

Inch, once truly an island as its name suggests, was the site of a pre-Norman monastery known by the island's Irish name of Inis Cumhscraigh.

It was built by 800 A.D. Inch was devastated by a Viking raid, led by Sitric Silkbeard, in 1001 when many captives were taken.

☘️

It was raided again in 1149 by the Irish, which suggests that the church was wealthy enough to be worth raiding.

The visible ruins are the extensive remains of the Cistercian Abbey.

The Cistercian order was founded in late 11th century France 🇫🇷 to pursue a strict communal life of worship, study and manual work. The Cistercian Rule insisted that Monasteries should be sited far from the distractions of everyday affairs, and in its beautiful riverside situation Inch perfectly illustrates this preference for solitude.

✝️

The Abbey was founded by John de Courcy, conqueror of Ulster, in 1180, after he had burned its predecessor, Inis-Cumhscraigh. De Courcy was a strong supporter of the church.

Inch was established by monks from Furness in Lancashire, and was partly built by masons brought in from England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Recent history ⤵️

Little is known of the abbey's later history except that it remained a centre of strong English influence, refusing to accept Irishmen into the community. The architectural evidence suggests that its numbers contracted in the later Middle Ages, and monastic life ended with the dissolution of the monasteries when, in 1541, it was granted, with its lands, to Gerald, Earl of Kildare.

🍃

By the late 19th century the buildings were badly ruined and overgrown, but excavation and repairs were carried out in 1914 when many of the architectural details were restored in cement.

Fun fact: ✨⤵️

It is served by Inch Abbey railway station, which is operated by the County Down Railway

🚂

✨📸

16/08/2021

🐟The Big Fish 🐟⁣
⁣
The Big Fish (also called The Salmon of Knowledge) is a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture commisioned by Irish artist John Kindness. The 10-metre-long statue was constructed in 1999 and installed on Donegall Quay in Belfast, near the Lagan Lookout and Custom House, in the historic Sailortown District of Belfast.⁣ 🌆
⁣
✨ Fun fact ✨
⁣
Each scale tells a story about the city. ⁣
⁣
Material from the Tudor era to represent daily newspaper headlines are included along with contributions from Belfast school children (including a soldier and an Ulster Fry). ⁣🥓🍳
⁣

13/08/2021

Down Cathedral
Standing perched on Cathedral Hill in Downpatrick is the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, also known as Down Cathedral. ⛪️

It is set on an ancient ecclesiastical site dating back to the 12th century. The original Monks that worshipped here were expelled by John de Courcy in 1177, and replaced by Benedictine Monks. ✝️

In the cathedral graveyard, a large Mourne granite slab marks the traditional burial place of St Patrick. A wreath is laid there each St Patrick’s Day. ☘️☘️ swipe 👉🏻👉🏻

✨ Did you know? ✨

The Diocese of Down and Dromore is the only Diocese in the UK and Ireland that has more than one Cathedral? The other being Dromore Cathedral! 2️⃣

13/08/2021

📍 Wildflowers at Night, Trinity College Dublin ✨🌾🍄

This iconic university in the heart of Dublin has begun planting wildflower meadows to replace the manicured lawns at the front of its entrance building.

This is part of its response to Ireland’s biodiversity crisis and commitment to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. 🐝 🌍

🌸 Wildflowers support biodiversity and provide a habitat for native insects and food for pollinators in the city centre, and Trinity converted substantial areas of the campus to wildflower havens last year, providing more space for insects to rest, live and feed.

🌺 The new wildflower meadows will further increase the range of plant species available for pollinators, while representing a pioneering attempt in Ireland to place wildflower spaces in a formal setting.

🌹 The wildflowers being planted will include a mix of annuals and perennials, possibly supplemented with some bulbs and rhizomatous plants 🐝🌱

📸✨

#

Belfast Unlocked

28/10/2022

04/08/2022

31/07/2022

03/07/2022

24/09/2021

13/09/2021

25/08/2021

18/08/2021

17/08/2021

16/08/2021

13/08/2021

13/08/2021

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organisation

Shortcuts

Share