Dundonald Touring Caravan Park, Castlereigh, County Down, Ulster

                   

Titanic Belfast was the destination for the day, with a backup plan for the afternoon. I was sure we would have the afternoon free to tour beyond the urban boundaries of the city because our tickets for Belfast’s major tourist destination were booked for 9.45 am to take advantage of the “early-bird” discounted entry. In fact we arrived quarter of an hour early and after we printed our internet booked tickets from the fancy machine in the lobby, and offered them to the friendly doorman we were given immediate entry, despite arriving before our ticketed time.

I had not been as keen as my husband to visit the centre, even after having been encouraged to do so by our hostess in County Tyrone and Chris’ brother who visited some years ago. We had enjoyed the Titanic exhibition in Liverpool a couple of years ago and I wondered what more this in Belfast could possible offer.

I was proved wrong today and we were kept captivated for at least five hours, hence the plans for the afternoon were discarded or at least postponed for a later opportunity. The website explains that the last entry is one and three quarter hours before closing time, which suggests one should expect to spend that amount of time exploring the attraction. I suspect the coachload of tourists who entered as we did spent that or less, but cannot have come away as satisfied as we did.

The Titanic Quarter is situated on Queen’s Quay which was once a hive of ship building activity. These days this 185 acre site, previously occupied by Harland & Wolff has been reinvented for social and leisure activities; hotels, luxury apartments, cinema studios, the Odyssey Complex and most obviously Titanic Belfast, the towering structure opened in 2012, costing £77 million. In the first year it attracted 800,000 visitors, nearly twice the projected tourist numbers.

 It was here on Queen’s Island that the ill-famed RMS Titanic was constructed, along with many other great ships, not least the SS Nomadic, one of two lighters which ferried the doomed passengers out to their last voyage. From the mid -1880s, Harland & Wolff was the most important shipbuilding firm in the United Kingdom. In 1900 the Harland & Wolff site covered 80 acres and employed between 9,000 and 10,000 people. Of course there were many more employed in other industries that complimented the industry here on the docks, such as the linen mills that produced the table napkins and bed sheets that graced the tables and beds of the Titanic.

The centre has an excellent exhibition on the industry and life in Belfast leading up to the launch of the great ship, and then takes one step by step through the construction of the ship, with personal stories as well as a lot of technical information, but not so complex to turn off a twit-brain such as me. The creation of the docks here in Belfast was also explained well; how in the 17^th and 18^th century the mudflats and shallow waters prevented larger ships from reaching the city’s quays, how a solution arrived in 1849 in the form of the new Victorian Channel, opened after two cuts were made in the River Lagan and how in 1903 the port was further improved by the addition of the Musgrave Channel. 

Titanic Belfast extends over nine interactive galleries, presented in a multitude of ways and even a ride through the working shipyard in a small capsule where one is surrounded by the sights and sounds of industry. 

The building in which this is housed is an architectural wonder in itself and is graced by water features and sculptures beyond the entrance, including a sculpture of a female figure, arms outstretched, a Kate Winslet-like figurehead.  A group of Asian tourists gathered around one water feature drew my attention to the wonderful reflections of the structure. 

After lunch, we headed over to the SS Nomadic, a restored vessel standing within a dry dock. I had few expectations but it was included in our ticket price, so had to be given a cursory look. As it turned out this was another treasure well worth visiting. This and its sister ship, the SS Traffic, worked as shuttle services for liner passengers, as troop carriers through both wars, and then the former went on to live in semi-retirement in Paris on the Seine as a night-club and a Japanese restaurant before being saved from the scrap heap when it was purchased, towed back to her place of birth and restored to her former utilitarian glory. Today she serves as yet another souvenir of the Titanic disaster.  

So all in all this had been an excellent day and by the time we made our way east out of the city centre, we decided there was not enough time to do any further touring for the day. Instead we popped into the Tesco Extra we spotted en route home. The day had remained dry but so very cold. Since arriving home, the rain has returned, this another named storm, Bronagh, which will bring gales all over again, however we here in Belfast should be saved the worst of it.