The Belfast Botanic Gardens were founded in 1828 by the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society. They were originally intended to be devoted exclusively to the study of plants, but public interest and the need for funds led to their being opened to the public, at first only on certain days and subject to an admission charge. The grounds became a place for an assortment of outdoor activities and eventually became an entertainment venue, and these goings-on continue to the present day. The Gardens became a public park in 1895, when they were purchased by the Belfast Corporation, the predecessor of the present-day Belfast City Council.

Posted at the Stranmillis Road entrance to the Botanic Gardens is a statue of Lord Kelvin, the famous 19th Century mathematical physicist and engineer (well, famous to physicists and physics students anyway). Lord Kelvin's connection to the Botanic Gardens is tenuous – basically, they were both born in the same city, within a few years of each other (Kelvin was born in 1824). Kelvin only lived in Belfast until he was nine years old, and he never seemed to have much interest in botany, specializing in the physical sciences. He spent the bulk of his career across the water in Glasgow, Scotland. In fact, the "Kelvin" in his title (his actual name was William Thomson) came from the name of a river that flowed by his laboratory at the University of Glasgow. Nevertheless, Kelvin's statue occupies a position of honor in the Belfast Botanic Gardens. Directly behind it are two fast-growing imports from California, a coastal redwood tree and a giant sequoia tree.

There are two structures of interest in the Gardens. The first, just down a path from the Kelvin statue, is called the Palm House. A palm house is a structure for the preservation of tropical and subtropical plants in regions whose climates will not support such plants. Palm houses made of cast iron and glass came into vogue in the Victorian era, and this one, built from 1839-1840, was one of the first. It was designed by Charles Lanyon (yes, the same Lanyon who designed the main building at Queen's University) and was built by a man named Richard Turner. Turner went on to build similar but larger glasshouses at Kew Gardens in London and at the Irish National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.


We walked through the Palm House, admiring the many plants that had been crammed into it.





From the Palm House we continued into the Gardens, passing by a large grassy area with groups and families picnicking. Kids were kicking balls around, in apparent defiance of a warning sign. But it's possible they weren't keeping score, which would technically mean that there weren't any "ball games" going on.

Beyond the grassy area was a large rose garden, where we spent some more time wandering around.


Heading back toward the entrance to the Gardens, we stumbled across the second structure of interest in the Gardens, the Tropical Ravine. This building, which opened in 1889, contains a large variety of tropical plants (orchids, ferns, banana trees, etc.). It is set up as a ravine with water features, with an elevated walkway around it. It is advertised as the only such structure in Europe. Its plants seemed quite happy in their artificial environment. This was both good and bad – happy plants are healthy plants, and this may have been a pretty good approximation of what a real tropical ravine might look like. But the ravine was pretty overgrown, making it difficult to concentrate on or even find individual plants one might be interested in. Since our visit the management has closed the Ravine (starting in November 2015) for a major renovation, to alleviate the excessive bushiness and generally update the presentation, and also to fix some structural problems and to make the Ravine's operation more energy efficient. It's scheduled to reopen in early 2017.




Having had our fill of the Botanic Gardens, the next place we wanted to visit was Titanic Belfast, a museum situated where the famous ocean liner was built. As this was at the harbor (or harbour), and we were nowhere near the harbour, we got back on the bus and returned to the city center (or centre). We found some lunch and then looked for another bus which would connect the city centre with the harbour.