Ulster Folk and Transport Museums
Five steam locomotives underneath a concrete walkway and a curved steel roof
Rail Gallery of the Ulster Transport Museum
Ulster Folk and Transport Museums is located in County Down
Ulster Folk and Transport Museums
Location within County Down
Established1967
LocationCultra, Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°38′57″N 5°47′56″W / 54.649238°N 5.798968°W / 54.649238; -5.798968
Visitors172,712 (2019)[1]
Public transit accessBus interchange 501A, 501B
Website

Both the Ulster Folk Museum and the Ulster Transport Museum are situated in Cultra, Northern Ireland, about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of the city of Belfast. The Folk Museum endeavours to illustrate the way of life and traditions of the people in Northern Ireland, past and present, while the Transport Museum explores and exhibits methods of transport by land, sea and air, past and present. The museums rank among Ireland's foremost visitor attractions and is a former Irish Museum of the Year.[2] The location houses two of four museums included in National Museums Northern Ireland.[3]

History

Created by an Act of Parliament in 1958, the Folk Museum was created to preserve a rural way of life in danger of disappearing forever due to increasing urbanisation and industrialisation in Northern Ireland. The site the museum occupies was formally the Estate of Sir Robert Kennedy, and was acquired in 1961, with the museum opening to the public for the first time three years later in 1964. In 1967, the Folk Museum merged with the Belfast Transport Museum (located on Witham Street in the city), to form the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. In 1993, the Transport Museum moved into new Rail and Road Galleries in Cultra, close to the Folk Museum site.[4] The galleries were subsequently expanded in 1996. In 1998, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum merged with the Ulster Museum and the Ulster-American Folk Park[5] to form the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland, now National Museums Northern Ireland.

Folk Museum

W. and G. Baird Stationers and Printers
The waterwheel which powered the Coalisland spade mill

The Folk Museum houses a variety of old buildings and dwellings which have been collected from various parts of Ireland and rebuilt in the grounds of the museum, brick by brick. 170 acres (0.69 km2) are devoted to illustrating the rural way of life in the early 20th century, and visitors can stroll through a recreation of the period's countryside complete with farms, cottages, crops, livestock, and visit a typical Ulster town of the time called "Ballycultra", featuring shops, churches, and both terraced and larger housing and a Tea room. Regular activities include open hearth cooking, printing, needlework, and traditional Irish crafts demonstrations. All these new developments have aided UFM in developing a new visitor base and have gained the site international recognition.

The museum is the holder of Northern Ireland's main film, photographic, television and sound archives. The museum holds the BBC Northern Ireland archive of radio and television programmes, and also possesses over 2,000 hours of sound material broadcast between 1972 and 2002 by the Irish language radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, from its studios in Derrybeg, County Donegal. The museum also maintains an archive of Ulster dialects, and a large library containing over 15,000 books and periodicals. The archives and library are open to the public during office hours.

Transport Museum

Great Southern Railways No. 800 Maeḋḃ, 2006

The Transport Museum houses an extensive transport collection, and endeavours to tell the story of transport in Ireland, from its early history to the modern era. It is the largest railway collection in Ireland.[6]

The Irish Railway Collection tells the story of over 150 years of railway history. Steam locomotives, passenger carriages and goods wagons are combined with extensive railway memorabilia, interactive displays and visitor facilities. One of the collection's main attractions is Great Southern Railways Class 800 locomotive No. 800 Maeḋḃ, one of the three largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever to be built and run in Ireland.[7]

Clay model of the DMC-12 Coupe by Italdesign, Moncalieri, Turin for the DeLorean Motor Company from 1975

The new Road Transport Galleries boast a large collection of vehicles ranging from cycles and motorcycles to trams, buses, and cars. One of its most famous attractions is a DMC DeLorean car, the model made famous by Back to the Future, and manufactured by the DeLorean Motor Company in Belfast. Recent additions to the collection include a full set of Stanley Woods racing memorabilia, and two of his bikes. Also on display is a Rex McCandless vehicle and an early Formula 1 racing car. In October of 2023 a collection of 7 racing motorbikes from local racers, including Joey Dunlop, was opened in the Driven gallery of the museum, as examples of the long history of road racing in Northern Ireland.[8]

The museum boasts a permanent Titanic exhibition, documenting the construction, voyage, and eventual sinking of the ill-fated vessel. The ship has long been associated with Northern Ireland, as it was constructed in the Harland and Wolff shipyards, just a few miles from the museum. The newly refurbished Titanic exhibition, tying in with the Folk museum's 'Titanic Trail' is titled TITANICa.[9] Also on the nautical theme, there is the 120 ton steel schooner Result.

Short SC.1, an experimental vertical take-off aeroplane

The aircraft on display is the Shorts manufactured Short SC.1, an experimental vertical take-off aeroplane, only two of which were ever produced. The example in the museum, XG905, crashed in 1963, ending up upside down and killing its pilot. It was, however, repaired and flown again before eventually being preserved by the museum.[10]

Railway and tramway vehicles

Number Type Build date Photo Original operator Gauge Notes
484-wheeled 3rd-class carriage1838DKR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Built as 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm), converted to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) in 1856.
476-wheeled director's saloon1844MGWR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)William Dargan's private saloon.
1Bogie tricomposite carriage1882CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)Used as director's saloon when required.
24-wheeled bench wagon1882Guinness3 ft (914 mm)1 of 4 built for giving tours of the brewery. Converted to 3' from 1'10". Being restored in the museum stores. Not on display.
34-wheeled bench wagon1882Guinness3 ft (914 mm)1 of 4 built for giving tours of the brewery. Converted to 3' from 1'10".
381Horse-drawn tram1883GNR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Fintona tram.
20-4-0T steam tram1883Portstewart Tramway3 ft (914 mm)Vertical boiler
2Electric tram1883GCT3 ft (914 mm)
5Electric tram1883GCT3 ft (914 mm)
46-wheeled composite carriage1884CVBT3 ft (914 mm)
24-4-0T steam locomotive1884CLR3 ft (914 mm)Named Kathleen
2Electric tram1885BNT3 ft (914 mm)
118Horse-drawn tram1885Belfast Street Tramways Co4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm)[11]
5Bogie composite carriage1887CLR3 ft (914 mm)
10-6-0ST steam locomotive1891LPHC5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns
932-4-2T steam locomotive1895GNR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)GNRI Class JT named Sutton
304-4-2T steam locomotive1901BCDR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Last BCDR locomotive in existence
4Electric tram1901GNR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Howth tram.
249Electric tram1905BCT4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm)[11]
200-4-0T steam locomotive1905Guinness1 ft 10 in (559 mm)In 1882 Samuel Geoghegan, the Guinness brewery's young head engineer, invented and patented a lightweight steam engine with all moving parts high above the dirty floor to fit within a 6 ft (1.8 m) loading gauge.
Model of haulage wagonGuinness5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Samuel Geoghegan also invented a Haulage Wagon by which his patented narrow-gauge locomotives could be used on broad gauge track.
1Petrol railcar1905CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)Nicknamed The Pup.
20-4-0T steam locomotive1906Larne Aluminium Works3 ft (914 mm)
16-wheeled composite carriage1909DNGR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Last DNGR vehicle in existence.
22-6-4T steam locomotive1912CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)Named Blanche
2464-wheeled petrol mechanical1916War Department, later sold to Carnuff Quarry of Howden Brothers in Larne and then moved to Collin Glen brickworks in Belfast2 ft (610 mm)This was one of 40 bespoke Simplex petrol locos ordered in 1916 by the War Department from the Rail & Tram Car Company of Bedford for use on the trenches railway. In all, the Motor Rail Company supplied 820 locos to the War Department.
744-4-0 steam locomotive1924NCC5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)NCC Class U2 named Dunluce Castle Built by North British Locomotive Company
ERailbus1928GNR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)
3Carriage1926CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)Former 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) railcar from DBST, bought by CDRJC and converted to 3'.
11Diesel locomotive1928CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)Named Phoenix. Built as a steam locomotive but converted to diesel in 1932.
357Electric tram1930BCT4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm)[11]
10Diesel railcar1932CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)The first articlated diesel railcar in Ireland. Ordered in 1932 by the Clogher Valley Railway as CVR railcar No 1 from Walkers of Wigan. To save money, CVR supplied the rear used carriage bogie.
8004-6-0 steam locomotive19394-6-0 GSR 800GSR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)GSR Class 800 which was one of the most powerful steam locomotive to be built for an Irish Railway. Named Maedb.
31274-wheeled diesel mechanical1943Admiralty Railway, Lisahally, Lough Foyle2 ft (610 mm)The pier railway was built in 1942 and the loco delivered in 1943. During WWII, it hauled the covered wagon between land-based stores and ships at the end of the pier.
 ?4-wheeled diesel mechanical1944 ?2 ft (610 mm)
 ?4-wheeled diesel mechanical1946Northern Sand & Brick Company. In 1955 sold to the Ministry of Agriculture to work on the construction of the Black Braes Embankment sea defences beside Loch Foyle. Later sold to County Antrim to work on the new Ballyumford power station.2 ft (610 mm)This Simplex loco was built by the Motor Rail Company of Bedford to be exhibited at the Royal Dublin Show in 1946. It was later bought by the Northern Sand & Brick Company for its Toome brickworks railway, where it worked until 1955.
354-wheeled diesel mechanical1950Guinness2 ft (610 mm)This loco was one of 12 Planet diesels built for Guinness (beer) by F. C. Hibberd. It hauled side tippers for malt and spent grain, coal and cinders, and flat wagons for barrels up to 1975.
B113BoBo diesel1950CIÉ5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)CIE 113 Class
102BoBo diesel1970NIR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)NIR 101 Class
 ?Rail bike ?NCC5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)
23642Brake van19??CIÉ5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)
706Goods van19??GSWR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)
240Cattle wagon ?SLNCR5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Being restored in the museum stores. Not on public display.
 ?Flatbed19?? ?5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Being restored in the museum stores. Not on public display.
 ?Coal wagon ? ?5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Being restored in the museum stores. Not on public display.
136Open wagon19??CDRJC3 ft (914 mm)
 ?Goods van19?? ?2 ft (610 mm)
4-wheeled mining carts2 ft 6 in (762 mm)

Railway connection for visitors

Cultra railway station on the Belfast-Bangor railway line provides connections to Sydenham, Belfast Central and Great Victoria Street, Portadown and Newry in one direction and to Bangor in the other direction.

See also

Other museums

Notes

  1. "ALVA - Association of Leading Visitor Attractions". www.alva.org.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  2. Annual Report 2004 (PDF), The Heritage Council, p. 24, archived from the original (PDF) on 20 November 2007, retrieved 8 July 2008
  3. "Homepage". National Museums NI. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  4. "Geograph:: Former Belfast Transport Museum (March... © Albert Bridge". www.geograph.ie. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  5. "Ulster Folk & Transport Museum". Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. Archived from the original on 19 September 2004. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  6. Visit Northern Ireland website, Ulster folk and Transport Museum Holywood, retrieved 8 July 2008
  7. "Steam Locomotive No. 800 'Maedb'". National Museums NI. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. https://www.ulstertransportmuseum.org/whats-on/bikes
  9. "TITANICa: The Exhibition". Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. National Museums Northern Ireland. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  10. WingWeb.co.uk, The full story of the Harrier "Jump-Jet" Part One, archived from the original on 28 August 2008, retrieved 8 July 2008
  11. 1 2 3 Voice, David (2004). The Definitive Guide to Trams (including funiculars) in the British Isles (3rd ed.). UK: Adam Gordon. ISBN 1874422486.
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