Ulster Museum

Belfast, United Kingdom

The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology. It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne.

The museum contains significant finds from Northern Ireland, although in earlier periods these were often sent to the British Museum or later Dublin, as with the Broighter Hoard, now in the National Museum of Ireland. Objects in the museum include the Malone Hoard of 19 polished Neolithic axe heads, the Moss-side Hoard of Mesolithic stone tools, the important Downpatrick Hoard of Bronze Age gold jewellery, part of the Late Roman Coleraine Hoard, the Viking Shanmullagh Hoard, and the medieval coins in the Armagh City Hoard and Armagh Castle Street Hoard.

There are other significant objects of the Bronze Age gold jewellery for which Ireland is notable, including four of the 100-odd surviving gold lunulae, and some important early Celtic art, including a decorated bronze shield found in the River Shannon, and the Bann Disk, bronze with triskele decoration.

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Details

Founded: 1929
Category: Museums in United Kingdom

More Information

www.nmni.com
en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Heli Snowboard (2 years ago)
Very good museum site in the Britannia park. Lots of information. The cafe is big as well. Staff are lovely. However, the one way system for history route was walking backwards instead of follow the time line. I have spent 3 hours there only managed half of history part. No time to look at the nature and people part at all. If you are interested in history, make sure you give plenty of time.
PV123 -g (2 years ago)
FREE entry to a great museum and gallery. Some fascinating and wonderful exhibits. Covering History Nature Art etc. Includes a section on 'The Troubles' which tries to be balanced and informative. The Botanical Gardens next door also well worth a visit.
sandra vincent (2 years ago)
We had been here with our children and grandchildren during the summer and decided to come back for a more leisurely and intentional visit. And so we did! It was great - so many really interesting exhibits and information. And I have rarely experienced more friendly and helpful staff. We're already planning our next visit as there are new exhibitions coming up soon. Well worth a visit. Thank you to all the staff who made it such a great experience.
Jan Blake (2 years ago)
Great collection, well arranged/structured and easy to follow, I spent ~3hours here and enjoyed it. My most preferred section was The Elements room. Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. Highly recommend! The only reason I rated it 4 stars is that some visitors leave their children running around and being quite noisy, disturbing the other visitors that are really interested in the exhibitions.
Nigel Miller (2 years ago)
This is a very interesting places to visit. It is very well presented telling many things about our past. Even if you are not from here there is a lot to learn about Ulster. I very much recommend people from here and visitors to Northern Ireland to go and spend some time at the Ulster Museum. They will not be disappointed.
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