Belfast Leg 6: Dash-Dot-Dot-Dash-Dot-Dash-Dash-Dot-Dot-Dot-Dash-Dot-Dash-Dot

Part of Cable and Wake’s wakeboarding paraphernalia

Lights representing the lifesize outline of the Titanic’s deck

New headlamp!

Feeling adventurous, we took a night-time jaunt (well…at about 8pm…so not that adventurous) to the Titanic Slipways and Plaza, just behind the Titanic Belfast Museum.

From a distance, the area just looks like a fairly plain, paved space with several huge steel lampposts and some benches dotted about the place. On closer inspection, we found that the slipways and plaza are full of interesting facts, and the sparse features are all very carefully placed to represent it’s impressive history. The RMS Titanic, and one of it’s sister ships, the RMS Olympic, launched from this very place. Life-sized outlines of the ships, are marked on the plaza, and glow a bright blue in the evenings. It’s a great reminder of how massive these boats actually were; the lights look pretty special too and help make the Titanic museum look even more spectacular in the background.

Besides being a fascinating history-rich spot, the slipways are also used for concerts; BBC Proms and MTV have both used this huge space on multiple occasions. Plus if you’re into extreme water sports, wakeboarding company Cable & Wake operate from here too so you can willingly fling yourself in, around and over the port!

There are so many little details in this area, it’s impossible to talk about all of them; literally every patch of grass, lamppost, paving stone, and bench, was placed especially to tell another part of the Belfast shipbuilding story (the benches are placed in Morse code arrangement and welcome you to the Titanic museum!) . This area is well worth a visit; it’s completely open access and free, and you can drop by at any time of the day or night. We would definitely recommend dusk, just so it’s dark enough to see the lights in action, but still light enough to read the information boards which explain the layout, and describe what every piece of this site represents. More information on what each piece symbolizes can be found here; http://www.titanicbelfast.com/The-Experience/The-Slipways-Plaza.aspx