Foreign Perspectives

With only two days of heritage days and a massive booklet listing what must be hundreds of places, you really need to take some time to identify what will be the best places to see (assuming that there’s decent weather, of course).

Be careful of the small print as some places are only free on one of the days or have, say, the gardens open both days but tours only free on one of those days. Slightly misleading is that many of the places listed as free (getting on for 90%) are always free although you can find a tour or something similar added in specially for the heritage days.

Always at the top of the list are the National Trust places with all of them open although do read the small print as not all of them are free on both days. However, don’t neglect the equally magnificent privately owned mansions that are only opened on the heritage days eg Killymoon Castle in Cookstown. Although going to the National Trust places will save you a few quid, going to the private houses is something that you can’t normally do and of those I’ve seen the value is at least equal to the National Trust places.

Top amongst my picks has to be the Titanic Boat Tour. Normally at a tenner a go (£30 for a family ticket) this is a little expensive but you can get the same tour free on the 2pm and 3.30pm sailings on both days. It’s fully booked but I’m reliably informed that many people didn’t turn up last year so you’ve a good chance of getting on if you go on the day. If you’re into boat trips there’s one to one of the islands on Lough Neagh leaving at noon which sounds like a great picnic spot.

A little different is the architectural bus tour on the Friday afternoon which looks like it’ll go round some places that you ordinarily wouldn’t see. In a similar vein there are walking tours in a number of towns around the province which, for the most part, are only run for the heritage days.

Reopening just for the heritage days is the Ulster History Park at Gortin. This was an excellent protrayal of pre-historic Ireland but a combination of being a little off the beaten path and not being well sign-posted lead to its closure a few years ago. Hopefully this is a sign that it’ll be reopening properly next year but in the meantime, don’t miss it as in addition to its usual attractions, it’s one of the History Alive events.

Their server isn’t quite up to the job of handling all the requests at the moment so best to pick up the paper form of WonderfulNI instead. Obviously since it’s a European event, Ireland also do an equivalent event although, somewhat more sensibly, it’s at the end of August during the school holidays.