3 Days in Belfast — Essential Highlights

Black Cab Tour: the Falls Road (Catholic/Nationalist/Republican heartland of West Belfast). Bobby Sands mural: the 10m × 10m mural of Bobby Sands (1954–1981) on the Sinn Féin office wall — Sands was the IRA prisoner who died after 66 days of hunger strike in the Maze Prison (May 5 1981): he was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone on April 9 1981, 26 days before his death. The peace walls: the 99 concrete and steel barriers (some up to 9m high) separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, first erected by the British Army in 1969, still standing today. The Shankill Road: the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and UDA (Ulster Defence Association) paramilitary murals.

Ulster Museum (free entry): the Armada Collection — treasure from the Girona (the Spanish Armada galleon wrecked off the Antrim coast in October 1588 with 1,300 men aboard (only 9 survived): gold jewelry, bronze cannon, navigational instruments: the most important collection of 16th-century Spanish artifacts outside Spain). Takabuti: the Egyptian mummy (c. 650 BCE, purchased in Thebes in 1834 — the most visited single artifact in Northern Ireland). The art collection: works by Turner, Picasso, Hockney and the most important collection of Irish Modernist art outside the National Gallery of Ireland.

Giant's Causeway (UNESCO World Heritage 1986): 40,000 interlocking basalt columns (mostly hexagonal, some pentagonal or heptagonal) on the Antrim coast. Formation: 60 million years ago, the rapid cooling of a massive lava flow caused the basalt to contract and crack into regular hexagonal columns (the same process as drying mud, but at geological scale). The tallest columns: 12m above sea level. The Finn MacCool myth: the Irish giant who built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner. The 2km cliff-top walk to Benbane Head: the most spectacular coastal scenery in the British Isles.

Northern Irish fish and chips: the fresh Atlantic haddock from Causeway coast fishing boats, battered and fried in beef dripping (the traditional Northern Irish frying medium — crispier and more savory than vegetable oil). Ulster chips: thick-cut (not French-style thin), fried in beef dripping until golden and crispy outside, fluffy inside. The Bushmills Distillery: the Old Bushmills Distillery (the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery — first license granted in 1608 by King James I): a post-dinner dram of the 10-year single malt is the most traditional way to end a day on the Antrim coast.

Botanic Gardens Palm House: the curvilinear wrought-iron and glass glasshouse built by Richard Turner between 1839 and 1852 (Turner also built the Great Palm House at Kew Gardens (1848) and the Curvilinear Range at the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin (1848–1869)). Queen's University Belfast: the 1849 Tudor Gothic building by Charles Lanyon (red brick and sandstone, central tower and quadrangle based on Magdalen College Oxford — the most beautiful university building in Ireland). The Tropical Ravine: the 1887 Victorian fernhouse with spectacular tropical plantings.

Crumlin Road Gaol (designed by Charles Lanyon, built 1845, closed 1996): 150 years of history — IRA and loyalist paramilitary leaders imprisoned during the Troubles, Nazi collaborators during WWII. The execution chamber: the 1891 gallows (17 prisoners hanged 1901–1961: the last executions in Northern Ireland). The condemned cell and trapdoor are preserved in their original state. The underground tunnel: the 45m passage connecting the Gaol to the Crown Court across the Crumlin Road (prisoners were transferred unseen during the most dangerous Troubles periods).

St George's Market (1890, Friday–Sunday, 250+ stalls): the Great British Market Awards "Champion Market." Strangford Lough oysters: Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) farmed in Strangford Lough (the largest sea inlet in the British Isles (150 km² of sheltered tidal water): cold, clean, food-rich water produces some of Europe's most flavorful oysters). Comber Earlies: the new potatoes from the Ards Peninsula — the first UK food product to receive EU Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status (2012). Weekend craft beer: Boundary Brewing, Whitewater Brewery and Lacada Brewery on tap.

Boundary Brewing Co (East Belfast): the cooperative craft brewery — the most critically acclaimed in Northern Ireland. Tap Room open Thursday–Saturday (the export stout, the Berliner Weisse and the IPAs). Lacada Brewery (named for the local name for the Giant's Causeway rocks): the coastal-inspired craft beers. Whitewater Brewery (Mourne Mountains): the most commercially successful Northern Irish craft brewery — the "Belfast Lager" and "Crown" ales are the most widely distributed Northern Irish craft beers. Belfast craft beer: growing faster than the Dublin scene due to lower rents, a strong industrial brewing tradition and the post-Troubles cultural energy.