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Titanic in Belfast - guide to the Titanic Museum in Belfast

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Titanic Belfast, this special Titanic museum in Northern Ireland, won the 2016 award as the world's leading tourist attraction. We can understand why! Coming here, where the Titanic was once built, is a very special feeling. Titanic Belfast offers a journey through the ship's dramatic history. Right next door you can step into the dry dock where the ship was built or drink a beer in the halls where she was once designed. This is world class!

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Titanic in Belfast - a powerful experience

Many people probably start their Titanic experience by going straight to the museum, or exhibition, which is a more accurate description of this place. Our guide in Belfast corrected us every time we said museum - Titanic Belfast does not have a "collection of systematically arranged objects", which is Wikipedia's description of a museum. Titanic Belfast is an experience!

Titanic Belfast
Titanic Belfast - Titanic museum in Northern Ireland

We perhaps did our visit in a bit of a reverse order. We started with everything related to the Titanic in Belfast and ended with the Titanic Museum. But this order was not so bad after all, so you can follow us around on the same tour!

For those interested in the Titanic, we present all the things to see in the Belfast Quarter. The famous ship was built right here, at the Harland and Wolff shipyard, in 1909 - 1911. The Titanic Quarter is a 15-minute walk from Belfast city centre, and it's well worth the walk.

Affischer från Titanicmuseum
Harland and Wolff promotes its White Star Line ships

Titanic I Belfast and Titanic Quarter

Pretty soon after we arrived in Belfast, we heard about the "Titanic Quarter". Apart from the Cathedral Quarter, which is the other area to see as a tourist, you should definitely go here. This quarter is located around the harbour, where you will also find most of the Titanic-related things, such as the museum, the dry dock, the ship SS Nomadic and the Titanic hotel.

Titanic quarter Nordirland
Crossing the bridge - in the background are the Goliath (96 metres high) and Samson (106 metres high) cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.
Titanic I Belfast och Titanic Quarter
Boats in the sun - Titanic Museum in Northern Ireland in the background

Thompson dry dock and pump house

A short walk from the museum is Thompson's dry dock and pump house. This is not only the largest dry dock in the world, but also the dock where the Titanic was built before she was steered on her fateful maiden voyage.

Three sister ships were built here between 1911 and 1915. RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic were built at the same time in the dock, but for two completely different reasons. The RMS Olympic was built to carry more soldiers than any other ship, and left for New York on 14 June 1911. RMS Titanic was to be fitted out for the fine people going to New York in 1912. HMHS Britannic (Her Majesty's Hospital Ship) was completed in 1915 and the last of the Olympic class, and became a hospital ship.

Torrdockan i Belfast
This is where the Titanic was safe, before the maiden voyage.
Torrdocka från Harland & Wollfs
No little doll we climbed into!

The dock measures 556 x 93 metres and is located at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. The dock is a reminder of a golden age when the shipyard employed 35,000 people. This is not part of the Titanic Museum, but is just behind it. Next to the dock is the pump house, which was used to control the flow of water in and out of the dock. Everything here feels well preserved, as if it wasn't so long ago that it was built and slammed around the White Star Line ships ...

Titanic i Belfast samtMaskinrum och torrdocka
The world's largest dry dock needs a pump house, of course.

"Titanic in Belfast" The ship SS Nomadic

The SS Nomadic is the last existing ship of the White Star Line. The ship has been restored and now looks like it once did. What this ship once did? In fact, it had various tasks, but among other things, it was this very ship that transported the passengers to their tour with the RMS Titanic. The SS Nomadic is also featured in the Titanic Museum, but it's fun to see it for real too.

Titanic i Belfast och SS Nomadic
SS Nomadic from White Star Line
SS Nomadic Belfast
The ship SS Nomadic seen from behind
An exhibition of bags on board the ship ...

Titanic hotel

The hotel, named after the famous ship and located right next to the Titanic Museum, opened in September last year. What's special about this hotel is that it opened on the premises that Harland and Wolff once used to design their great ships. The tall, beautiful halls were built to give the men who drew the ships the best possible light. Today, the halls have been restored and are used as a bar and for various parties.

Belfast Titanic hotell
The entrance to the hotel, with the large drawing offices on either side.
Ritrum Titanic
Once upon a time the great White Star Line ships were designed here ...
Titanic hotell
Now you can enjoy a beer in the bright and relaxed bar.
Titanic hotell bar
The tiles in the bar are left over from the pool on board the Titanic.

Care has been taken to carefully restore parts of the past, and the whole hotel is full of memories. In the photo below, for example, you can see the room where the telephone operators sat and received calls during the shipping company's heyday. This is where the fateful messages came from the sinking ship, and where journalists came when they learnt of the dramatic news...

Titanic hotell Belfast
This is where the telephone operators sat, and where they received the messages about the disaster.

Titanic in Belfast - Titanic Museum in Northern Ireland

Last but not least, you have to see the Titanic Museum, or Titanic Experience, when you are in Belfast. Our guide was kind of right, because this is far from a classic museum, it's an experience. The exhibition takes you through nine different galleries, which together tell the fascinating yet horrific story of the Titanic.

Titanic Belfast - Titanicmuseum i Nordirland
Welcome to the Titanic Museum in Northern Ireland!

The first gallery takes you to Belfast during the industrial boom, and the second gallery takes you to the shipyard where Harland and Wolff's ship was built, while the sound of the sledgehammers could be heard throughout the city. It then moves on to the day the ship was launched, and you can go on board and see the different cabins. Here you can also stand on the famous Titanic grand staircase and take your selfies.

Tredje klass Titanic
The third class cabins were just fine!
Arbetare Titanic
The workers who set the fires were very busy!

The fifth gallery takes you on the maiden voyage to New York and in the sixth you will experience the disaster of the ship sinking after it collided with the iceberg. There were 2224 passengers on board. The Titanic hit the iceberg on 14 April 1912 during the day, and sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912. During this terrible night, around 1500 people who fell into the water and froze to death died, including 89 Swedes. The ship Carpathia arrived two hours later and took in 705 survivors.

The final three galleries at the Titanic Museum in Northern Ireland deal with the legal aftermath many years later, the Titanic in the world of films and books, and the exploration of the wreck. To find out more about the exhibition, please visit the museum's website.

Titanic sjunker
The unlikely happens - the ship sinks!

Watch the video of the Titanic in Belfast

Facts about the Titanic in Belfast

  • Travelling hereWe took a direct flight from Sweden to Dublin. Then we took a good and comfortable bus to Belfast, which took two hours and cost about 80 Swedish crowns. The Titanic Quarter is marked on all maps.
  • AccommodationWe stayed really central at The Bullit Hotel in the Cathedral Quarter and close to everything. There is a good restaurant and a good breakfast.
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