Stranmillis Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim
Phone : +44 (0) 28 9032 4902
Two of the most noticeable early greenhouses in Europe are to be found in Belfast's Botanic Gardens . The Palm House (1838 - 52) is one of the remarkable cast iron conservatories - Kew in London and the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, have notable examples too - which were erected with the assistance of the Dublin engineer, Richard Turner (c.1798 - 1881) . Its central dome shelters tall cycads and palms while one of the wings has displays of tropical flowering plants and the other tropical economic plants like coffee, sugar and banana . The Tropical Ravine (1887) is landscaped as a luxuriant tropical glen to be viewed from a high walkway all round . The sound of a waterfall fills the space while tropical climbing plants hang from the roof, bromeliads colonise the trunks of tall trees and huge leaves of the Amazonian water lily nearly conceal the waters of a pool . First established in 1828, the gardens have been enjoyed as a public park by the people of Belfast since 1895 . There is an extensive rose garden and long herbaceous borders, rare oaks planted in the 1880s, including the hornbeam-leaved oak . This handsome tree can be compared with the oak-leaved hornbeam which, by coincidence, has been planted nearby . A national Collection of Donard raised plants is being assembled .
Wheelchair access available .
Gardens open daily to dusk . Free access .
Greenhouses open Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat - Sun 2 - 5pm (until 4pm in winter) . Free access . |