Belfast Leg 4: Industrial beauty meets urban art

The beautiful Borgny Dolphin

Not so beautiful Dolphins

The Borgny Dolphin again…why not?

Just look at the size of that!

No really, look at it!

Clare prepares for Rachel’s inevitable dive for the oil rig

Innovation Avenue

Titanic Studios

Yet another giant anchor

Samson and Goliath

The entrance to T13

Graffiti at T13

Just hanging around waiting for Iron Fit to start

The best seat in town

The end of the cranes!

Blinks

The fourth leg of our trip brought unprecedented joy: the best view of the oil rig yet. Nipping in behind Northern Ireland Science Park, we got comfortable on the well-trimmed grass and enjoyed uninterrupted views of Belfast Harbour. After our rather wet and muddy trip the day before, we were thankful that the weekend caught itself on and gave us the chance to take in the coast under the warm evening sun. But while we make our way back to Queens Road, we’ll give you the chance to reflect on some facts about the Borgny Dolphin and the rest of the fleet.

1. The Borgny Dolphin is one of eleven oil rigs owned by Dolphin Drilling, all sailing under the flag of Singapore;
2. It can operate up to a depth of 1,750 ft and can drill down to a depth of 25,000 ft (25,000!);
3. On the top right of the photos above, you can see the rig’s helicopter deck;
4. Its sister ship, the Borgland Dolphin, was built in the same year (1977) at Harland & Wolff, Belfast;
5. According to the Belfast Telegraph, the Dolphin rigs docked in Belfast in recent years have created many local jobs, and hopefully boosted the city’s hospitality sector;
6. And last but not least, they are magnificent.

We left our new favourite haven and took a stroll past Titanic Studios to see if we could catch a glimpse of any cast or props from the latest Game of Thrones filming. No such luck, although we are certain the fabulous teepee we saw will be iconic in no time. The studio has housed all seasons of GoT so far, and much of the first season was filmed in various locations across Northern Ireland. Of course Titanic Studios once had their place in shipbuilding history, and on a subsequent trip on The Wee Tram (keep your eyes peeled for this blog post), we learnt that this is where ships’ hulls were painted.

Next, we made our way to T13, Belfast’s urban sports park. We love T13 and have been to a number of events here in the past, from a breakdancing competition to a Chinese New Year celebration. In fact, we plan to go to a coffee festival here in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll keep you posted on that! It wasn’t open when we got there, but this gave us the opportunity to explore the grounds a bit more, which just happened to back onto the Harland & Wolff cranes. Clare hit the nail on the head when she likened Samson and Goliath to a rainbow: “you can see them for miles around, but you can never quite see the end of them”. Well folks, today we saw the end of them. We were probably the closest we’ll ever get, and, although we knew they were absolutely massive, it was still a little bit breathtaking.

One final surprise awaited us as we made our way back to the car and caught sight of ‘Blinks’ at the entrance to Channel Commercial Park. The Blinks sculpture was created by artist Peter Nelson, along with former Harland & Wolff welders, and was installed as a tribute to all those who worked in the shipyard. Both of Rachel’s Grandas worked in the shipyard, one making the steel panels for the sides of the ships, and the other as a caulker, sealing the sides. We won’t go into too much detail as we hope to do a separate post on this.

Although Rachel felt a slight pang of sadness today at the realisation that the Borgny Dolphin would some day leave again to return to the seas, the view of the rig and the endless comings and goings of various vessels through the harbour reminded us that, whatever you make of Belfast, you’ll never get bored of the view.