Ulster Museum

The Ulster Museum stands in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens, a public park in the city’s south. Built in stages since 1821, it began as a natural history society before growing into the largest museum in Northern Ireland. The present building, designed by James Cumming Wynne, opened in Stranmillis in 1929. A major extension in 1972 added a Brutalist wing praised for its bold concrete forms. In 2009 the museum reopened after a £17 million refurbishment, restoring displays across 8,000 square metres. Its collections span art, archaeology, ethnography, local history and natural sciences. Important finds include the Malone Hoard of Neolithic axe heads and the Downpatrick Hoard of Bronze Age gold. The museum holds Ireland’s only dinosaur bones and a mummified Egyptian woman named Takabuti. Zoology displays feature rare specimens such as a giant squid model and a thylacine, alongside historic bird mounts by William Thompson and Robert Welch. Visitors walk through galleries tracing Northern Ireland’s past from earliest times to today. Art rooms show modern Irish works alongside ethnographic pieces. The natural history section displays Irish birds, mammals and fossils, while the herbarium contains over 100,000 plant specimens. Outside, the Botanic Gardens’ conifers frame the museum’s angular extension, linking the building to its green setting.