Botanic Gardens of Belfast

The Botanic Gardens of Belfast opened in 1828 as the private Royal Belfast Botanical Gardens. It continued as a private park for many years, only opening to members of the public on Sundays prior to 1895. Then it became a public park in 1895 when the Belfast Corporation bought the gardens from the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society.

Occupying 28 acres (110,000 m2) of south Belfast, the gardens are popular with office workers, students and tourists. The gardens' most notable feature is the Palm House conservatory. It was completed in 1840. It is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear cast iron glasshouses in the world. The Palm House consists of two wings, the cool wing and the tropical wing. Lanyon altered his original plans to increase the height of the latter wing's dome, allowing for much taller plants. In the past these have included an 11 metre tall globe spear lily. The lily, which is native to Australia, finally bloomed in 2005 after a 23-year wait. The Palm House also features a 400-year-old Xanthorrhoea.

Address
Botanic Court 13, Belfast, United Kingdom

Established
1828