Windows to a way of life
Northern Ireland’s national museums, among the foremost cultural, education and tourism destinations, attract up to 800,000 visitors annually. The museum sites, comprising the Ulster Museum, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Ulster American Folk Park, Armagh County. Museum and W5, offer a unique opportunity to explore Northern Ireland’s heritage and way of life.
Each museum offers its own particular insight into arts and culture, history and traditions, sciences and the natural world and their success is demonstrated by the many landmark achievements and awards won each year.
- The Ulster Museum
in Belfast is one of Northern Ireland’s top visitor attractions. It holds 95 per cent of the world’s authenticated Spanish Armada artefacts, all excavated from underwater sites off the north coast of Northern Ireland, as well as the most important collection of post-World War Two international paintings in Ireland and the largest collection of historic photographs in Ireland. The museum is currently closed until 2008 for redevelopment. - Ulster Folk and Transport Museum: Set in over 170 acres of rolling countryside at Cultra, near Holywood, Co. Down, the museum enables visitors to see how people lived in the early 20th Century Ulster. A bygone era is re-created in a rural landscape of farms, cottages, traditional crops and breeds of livestock and a typical early 1900s town is brought to life with homes, shops, workplaces, churches and schools. One of the finest museums in Europe, it includes Ireland’s largest and most comprehensive transport collection, from horse-drawn carts to Irish built motor cars, and from the mighty steam locomotives to ships and aircraft building. Permanent exhibitions of international acclaim include "Titanic and X2 Flight Experience".
- The Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, traces emigration from Ireland to the New World of North America. The award-winning museum has over 30 authentically furnished buildings, the only original American Frontier buildings on display in Europe.
- The Armagh Co. Museum, Armagh City, is the oldest county museum in Ireland. Displays and collections reveal the rich and varied legacy of the area, reflecting the lives of people who have lived and worked there, or who have had connections with the city and the county.
- The Armagh Observatory, Armagh City, is a modern astronomical research institute with a rich heritage, the oldest scientific institution in Northern Ireland and the longest continuously operating astronomical observatory in the UK and Ireland. The observatory grounds and Astropark include scale models of the solar system and the Universe, two sundials and historic telescopes, as well as telescope domes and other outdoor exhibits.
- The Armagh Planetarium, is a world-renowned astronomical educational establishment dedicated to bringing astronomy and related sciences to a wider audience. Established in 1968 to complement the research work of Armagh Observatory visitors can experience interactive on-site activities including workshops on rocket building, meteorite impacts, solar viewings and space robots. The buildings and displays have recently been completely refurbished. The newly installed state-of-the-art Digistar 3 star projection system allows audiences to experience full-dome video projection, which takes them to the farthest corners of the cosmos. This is real life time travelling.
- W5 is Ireland's only interactive discovery centre. With more than 160 interactive exhibits in four incredible exhibition areas it provides a unique hands-on experience for visitors of all ages. Part of the ultra-modern Odyssey complex in the historic Titanic quarter, this high-tech centre encourages everyone to have fun with science.
