Belfast Tours
Signature Belfast tour any visitor would be mad to miss. A Belfast history timeline.
2hours
EASY
Belfast Tours
Belfast walking tour throughout the city experiencing and feeling its history.
Belfast meaning “mouth of the sand-bank ford”, is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast of Northern Ireland. It is the 12th-largest city in the UK and the second largest on the island of Ireland. It has roughly a population of 311 ,152 as of 2019. Belfast suffered greatly in the Troubles. In the 1970s and 1980s it was reported to be one of the world’s most dangerous cities, with a homicide rate around 31 per 100,000. But that has all changed now.
By the early 19th century, Belfast became a major port. It played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname “Linenopolis”. By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland and Wolff shipyard, which built the RMS Titanic, was the world’s biggest shipyard. Belfast as of 2019 has a major aerospace and missiles industry. Industrialisation, and the inward migration it brought, made Belfast Northern Ireland’s biggest city and it became the capital of Northern Ireland following the Partition of Ireland in 1922. Its status as a global industrial centre ended in the decades after the Second World War of 1939–1945.
This tour can leave from Derry or begin from the City Centre in Belfast, where your tour guide will meet you. This tour is a Belfast walking tour of the city centre but can contain a private bus journey to Belfast for those travelling from Derry for the tour. Schools, universities, groups and tourists alike have enjoyed this very tour. Belfast tours can take 1.5 – 7 hours depending on what you would like to see. Our qualified tour guides will take you through the scenery in a timely manner spending time looking at key points of attraction like:
- Falls Road Murals and Memorial Garden
- The Peace Wall
- Shankill Road Murals and Memorial Garden
- Crumlin Road Gaol and Court House
- Cathedral Quarter
- St. Anne’s Cathedral
- Belfast City Hall
- Queens University
- Titanic Exhibition Centre
- Stormont Parliament Buildings
Options (although not essential):
- Crumlin Road Goal Official Tour
- Titanic Exhibition Centre Official Tour
- Belfast City Hall Official Tour
- Ulster Museum Official Tour
- Belfast Castle Official Tour
Our Tour Guides are more than happy to recommend places to eat, drink and stay in Belfast, so please do ask when you are booking your Belfast tour.
The most notable mural is a picture of Bobby Sands. Bobby Sands was an IRA prisoner. He became a Sinn Fein MP in Long Kesh jail, and in 1981 was the first of the hunger-strikers to die for Irish republican rights. The Republican Memorial gardens and many other murals, each with their own particular story, some relating to conflict in other areas around the world.
The Shankill Road has many murals of a Loyalist nature. These include various paramilitary depictions and celebrating HM The Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 plus Edward Carson signing the Ulster Covenant in 1912 on a Union Jack draped table at Belfast City Hall. The Shankill Road Memorial Gardens are dedicated to the nine innocent victims of a no warning bomb explosion in Frizzells Fish Mongers on the Shankill Road on 23rd October 1993.
When the Countess of Shaftsbury sold land to Belfast Corporation for the building of a new City Hall back in the late 1800s, it was on the condition that the new building would have ample grounds for the public to enjoy. It was opened on 1st August 1906 but building work had already begun several years earlier following Queen Victoria’s decision to award Belfast a Royal Charter and city status in 1888 in recognition of its thriving industry at the time.
Titanic Exhibition Centre is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast’s maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city’s Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built.
Customer focus
Ensuring our customer’s comfort and enjoyment, we will take care of you in every possible way. You can book this Belfast tour as a standalone tour or part of a package as we can arrange onward journeys to other parts of Northern Ireland, Derry and Donegal if requested. Check out our Destination Management Company page here. We will pick you up and drop you off at your desired accommodation at the time decided by you. Your vacation is in your time and you got the right to enjoy it your way. Unlike other tour guide companies, we don’t enforce a timetable to make you uneasy over a tight schedule. Go ahead and make a reservation now and I look forward to meeting you very soon.
Tours can be cancelled without any fees.
Please Note:
- Wheelchair accessible
- Stroller and pram accessible
- Animals or pets allowed
- Public transport is nearby.
You can start this experience at the following places.
Belfast City Hall
Donegall Place, Belfast BT1, Northern Ireland, GB
Great day enhanced by our knowledgeable driver/guide Stephen The weather helped but I would recommend you make sure you have good footwear
July 25, 2021
Being a university student studying the Troubles, I was blown away by the knowledge and experience of Ruari. He answered every question with extreme detail and used his own experiences… read more
March 30, 2020
I first met Ruairí in Derry in May 2019 and began working with him in August to plan a tour for 12 university students from the States in March 2020… read more
March 25, 2020