Other experience

Belfast: Crumlin Road Gaol Experience

Activity provider: Crumlin Road Gaol
Other experience

Belfast: Crumlin Road Gaol Experience

Activity provider: Crumlin Road Gaol

From US$ 15.36 per person

Visit Belfast’s infamous prison. Explore the jails cells, execution chamber and graveyard, as you learn about the prison's 150-year history.

About this activity

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Covid-19 precautions
Special health and safety measures are in place. Check your activity voucher once you book for full details.
Valid 1 day
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Host or greeter
English
Wheelchair accessible

Experience

Highlights
  • Explore the site at your own leisure on this self-guided experience
  • Learn about prison life with audio and video commentary in each area
  • Visit the condemned man's cell
  • Seeing the execution cell where men were hanged
  • Walk through the tunnel connecting the jail to the courthouse
Full description
Journey through Northern Ireland’s only remaining Victorian-era prison. Hear the stories of the murderers, suffragettes, loyalists and republican prisoners who were jailed here. Learn about the births, executions, hunger strikes and riots that have taken place within the prison walls. Begin your visit in the jail basement, where you can see artifacts from when the jail was in operation. Walk through the passageway, known as “the tunnel,” which connects the jail with the courthouse across the road. Between 1968 and the prison’s closing, over 25,000 prisoners made their way through this tunnel. See “the circle,” which is located at the centre of the four wings of the jail. Marvel at the jail’s 19th-century Victorian architecture. Next, make your way to the C-wing. Experience what the living conditions were like in the prison at various points throughout the jail’s history. See the condemned man’s cell. Seventeen men in total were executed at the jail, and you will see where many of them spent their last days. Enter the execution chamber where twelve men had their lives ended. End your tour at the graveyard, where the executed men were buried. As part of their sentence, the condemned men were “to be buried in an unmarked grave, in unconsecrated ground.”
Includes
  • Self-guided visit to Crumlin Road Gaol

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    Participants

    Date

    Meeting point

    Please go to the reception on arrival at Crumlin Road Gaol. There is a free car park on site.

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    Important information

    What to bring

    • Comfortable shoes
    • Comfortable clothes

    Not allowed

    • Pets
    • Video recording

    Know before you go

    • Please check in at reception on arrival
    • The first admission is 11:00 AM, last admission is 3:30 PM
    Customer reviews

    Overall rating

    4.6 /5

    based on 741 reviews

    Review summary

    • Guide
      4.6/5
    • Value for money
      4.6/5
    • Service
      4.9/5
    • Organization
      4.9/5

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    Excellent tour of the Gaol, the videos on the tour around are very informative on what life was like in there and seeing some of the burial sites of executed inmates are in the grounds too ! It’s a very worthwhile trip if your short of something to fill in a couple of hours !

    March 28, 2023

    Accompanied my English cousin on his first visit, this being my second. Having experienced it before I decided we did not need a guide. However when reaching the condemned men's cell a female guide somewhat arrogantly asked if we were part of her group. I replied no & as the notice clearly showed to wait she again arrogantly informed us once you enter the cell you cannot come out the same way. I responded - calmly - "thank you but I can read". We assumed she wrongly thought we were tagging on to her group for a "freebee". Annoying experience & totally uncalled for.

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    March 28, 2023

    Got the hop on hop off bus tour from city Hall stops about 100 yards from entrance we'd pre booked to be safe but it was quiet great little tour with different insights to the warden prisoners escapees executions just stroll round in your own time with different videos along the way would recommend if going to Belfast

    March 28, 2023

    Product ID: 225228