Crumlin Road Jail

Great place to visit and learn about the history of Northern Ireland.
The tour is great. Very informative with lots of bits and pieces of information thrown in about the everyday life at the jail in addition to all the history. Takes you to all the important places inside the jail and is quite well structured
The guides are very knowledgeable and try their best to make the tours interesting and fun and overall a great experience.
The price is very reasonable and one can buy tickets online or just show up at the gate. Went in the middle of the day on a Saturday and the tour wasn’t at all crowded.
Would recommend for a visit when in town.

I had been meaning to come here for absolutely years, and just never got around to it.
I am a huge fan of anything of historical interest, however my first visit, surprisingly, was for the Ghost tour this Halloween!
I booked the tickets online and came along this October hoping for a spooky experience. We were greeted at the gates by security who explained how to get around into the car park, and got parked up with no issues.
We waited in the coffee shop ‘The Crum’ — and had a wine and beer each prior to the tour. When the tour started, we were initially taken into a holding area, and then began by being taken into the tunnel linking the jail to the courthouse, where allegedly, paranormal activity has taken place!
Unfortunately (or thankfully, maybe) we experienced no such activity on our trip.
We were then taken into a side room where an employee was said to have met a grisly end, and we were instructed to record audio on our phones.
Next, we were taken to one of the wings where we could see the cells (and inside the cells) and last but not least, we were shown to the condemned man’s cell, and behind the book case to the gallows, before being taken down into the basement.
We didn’t experience any ghostly going’s on in our trip, but I would definitely come back again, this time during the day, so I can get a proper look at the inside of the jail, since the tour I did was in the dark or low light.
Recommended!

I was here with a group of classmates to take a tour and learn more about the history of the gaol. Our tour guide, Henry, was super informative and knowledgeable about the background of the gaol and the history of The Troubles.
If you’re in the area and are interested in learning more about the history of Ireland, or just history in general, then I highly recommend this tour.

What a great tour! We live in Belfast and decided that we should really visit the gaol when we are so close to it, and it was better than we could have imagined. The tour guide was great, the information was interesting, and getting to see the building, cells etc. was a fantastic experience. There is a little museum, shop, café, toilets and car park, so everything you need is there! We also did the Paranormal Tour on another occasion, which was interesting though not very eventful — I’d recommend the standard tour on your first visit as you learn so much about the history of the gaol.

I love expanding the old cranium, it gives you that slightly smug feeling that you can’t replicate. Of course by expanding the cranium I mean learning. Being a bit of a History buff I was always going to love Crumlin Road Goal. The corridors and cells are steeped in history and every corner you turn throws up another fascinating story. The tour guides do well to cram in 150 years of history in to around 75 minutes. In truth the tour could have gone on for 4 hours and I wouldn’t have been bored.
I’ve heard the paranormal tours and ghost tours are just as interesting but have the added excitement of a few spooky happenings thrown in for good measure. At £8.50 for an adult entry I consider this good value — there’s also a family rate on offer if you’re in a group.
The tour offers something really different in Belfast and presents a chance to learn a little bit more about the History of our city.

My fiancé and I had a great time learning about this prison in Belfast, Ireland. We are from the States, so we learned a lot during our trip in general about Northern Ireland’s «Troubles» (the civil war that lasted from the 1960s-​90s!) and this prison was filled to almost triple its capacity during these times. The prison has since closed and is now open to tours (and party bookings!).
The prison was originally built in the 19^th century and housed men, women AND children – one of its more interesting facts! Obviously things have changed! Our tour guide was knowledgable and had a great sense of humor, which is always a plus: when a tour is both intriguing and fun! The tour takes you all over the prison and even underground where a tunnel still exists that was used to walk prisoners to the court house across the street. Its supposedly one of the more haunted places in the prison, with the ghost of a little girl and guardsmen keeping watch! Spooky!
I highly suggest this tour. But bring a jacket – its chilly!

Was there on the 9^th Feb 2012. Amazing tour and can’t wait to do it again :).

The website states it will be closed til Autumn 2011 for renovations. :sad face: I really wanted to see it!

There is an awful lot of eerie and wholly interesting history in this place. Crumlin Road jail is the place to see how prison was back not that long ago — and of course the idea of hanging.
Built in 1845 this place has been praised for its rich history and such has been listed a grade A building. Around 25,000 prisoners were held here during the prison’s some 150 years of faithful service.
And, as taught by my media law lecturer, the last man hung in Belfast? Robert McGladdery was the last man hanged in Belfast on 20^th December 1961 in Crumlin Road, originally convicted of murder for the murder of Pearl Gamble. There you go.

I took a tour of this jail last October. It wasn’t any ordinary tour either — it was a ghost tour!
That may not be your thing (to be honest, it turned out it wasn’t really mine, either!), but the tour of the jail was fantastic in itself. Being a Victorian jail, Crumlin has seen Irish history from the Famine to the Troubles unfold in its cells, so there is plenty of history to be had. One of the nice touches was finding out that for a long time, suffragettes occupied a lot of the jail. It’s nice to know that not all Irish history is about «us and them»!
As part of the ghost part of our tour, we were taken right down into the bowels of the building, which was at once eerie and fascinating.
The tour guides themselves were ex-​inmates (nothing too serious though. Ours was, in his own words «in for being a stupid kid and throwing things at the police»). Also, the two guides were from the two sides of the community. This meant the tour was balanced, which was great, especially when it came to telling the modern history of the jail.
All in all, this is a great museum in Belfast that not a lot of people would think of going to. It’s full of history and has just the right amount of macabre to keep even the uninterested happy!