Northern Ireland trip 2016, Northern Ireland travel guide 2016, Northern Ireland holidays 2016, Attractions in Northern Ireland 2016 Travel Videos HD, World Travel Guide http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=World1Tube Sights in Northern Ireland Ulster American Folk Park ---------------------------------------------- In the 18th and 19th centuries thousands of Ulster people left their homes to forge a new life across the Atlantic; 200,000 emigrated in the 18th century alone. Their story is told here at one of Ireland's best museums, which features a sprawling outdoor history park , where exhibits are split into Old World and New World areas and come alive through reenactments. The park is 8km northwest of Omagh off the A5. Last admission is 1½ hours before closing. City Hall -------------------- Belfast's classical Renaissance-style City Hall was built in fine, white Portland stone in 1906. Highlights of the free, 45-minute guided tour include the sumptuous, wedding-cake Italian marble and colourful stained glass of the entrance hall and rotunda; an opportunity to sit on the mayor's throne in the council chamber; and the idiosyncratic portraits of past lord mayors. Each is allowed to choose his or her own artist and the variations in personal style are intriguing. The Industrial Revolution transformed Belfast in the 19th century. The city's rapid rise to muck-and-brass prosperity manifested in the extravagance of the building, which was paid for with the gas supply company's profits. The hall is fronted by a statue of a rather dour 'we are not amused' Queen Victoria . The bronze figures on either side of her symbolise the textile and shipbuilding industries. The child at the back represents education. Ulster Museum --------------------------- You could spend hours browsing this state-of-the-art museum, but if you're pressed for time don't miss the Armada Room , with artefacts retrieved from the 1588 wreck of the Spanish galleon Girona; the Egyptian Room , with Princess Takabuti, a 2500-year-old Egyptian mummy unwrapped in Belfast in 1835; and the Early Peoples Gallery , with the bronze Bann Disc, a superb example of Celtic design from the Iron Age. Free tours (10 people maximum; first-come, first served) run at 2.30pm Tuesday to Friday and 1.30pm Sunday. Crown Liquor Saloon ================ There are not too many historical monuments that you can enjoy while savouring a pint of beer, but the National Trust's Crown Liquor Saloon is one of them. Belfast's most famous bar was refurbished by Patrick Flanagan in the late 19th century and displays Victorian decorative flamboyance at its best (he was looking to pull in a posh clientele from the newfangled train station and Grand Opera House across the street). Castle Coole --------------------------- The 600 hectares of landscaped grounds contain a lake that is home to the UK's only nonmigratory colony of greylag geese. You can also join a tour of the grand 18th-century house . The estate is 2.5km southeast of Enniskillen. You can easily walk there from Enniskillen town centre in 30 minutes – beyond Dunnes Stores, fork left on Tempo Rd and keep going straight along Castlecoole Rd. When King George IV visited Ireland in 1821, the second Earl of Belmore had a state bedroom specially prepared at Castle Coole in anticipation of the monarch's visit. The king, however, was more interested in dallying with his mistress at Slane Castle and never turned up. The bedroom, draped in red silk and decorated with paintings depicting A Rake's Progress (the earl's sniffy riposte to the king's extramarital shenanigans), is one of the highlights of the one-hour guided tour. Navan Fort ------------------------- Perched atop a drumlin, Ulster's most important archaeological site is linked in legend with the tales of Cúchulainn and named as capital of Ulster and the seat of the legendary Knights of the Red Branch. Exhibits at the outstanding Navan Centre place the fort in its historical context, and display a re-creation of an Iron Age settlement. It's a 3km walk west of Armagh; alternatively, take bus 73 (up to nine daily Monday to Friday). Giant’s Causeway --------------------------------- This spectacular rock formation – Northern Ireland's only Unesco World Heritage site – is one of Ireland's most impressive and atmospheric landscape features, a vast expanse of regular, closely packed, hexagonal stone columns looking for all the world like the handiwork of giants. The phenomenon is explained in the Giant's Causeway Visitor Experience , a spectacular new ecofriendly building half-hidden in a hillside above the sea. Derry's City Walls --------------------------------- The best way to get a feel for Derry's layout and history is to walk the 1.5km circumference of the city's walls.

• published: 04 Jan 2016
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