BELFAST: 



HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



By John VinycoxMB, m.r. i.a. 



Belfast Lough and Harbour. 



HE City of Belfast is situated at the 



extremity of Belfast Lough, formerly called 



Carrickfergus Bay, from the town and 



castle of that name, and at a period 



when Belfast was too insignificant a place 



to be noticed upon maps of the time. The 



lough is an arm of the sea, about twelve 



miles in length, the breadth at the entrance 



is about five miles, which decreases gradually 



towards the extremity where the river Lagan joins 



it at the city harbour, with its miles of quays and 



docks for foreign-going ships, iron shipbuilding 



and marine engineering works, etc., which here 



line both sides of the harbour. 



On approaching Belfast by steamer, the stranger 

 cannot fail to be struck with the picturesque beauty 

 of the lough, the smiling villages scattered along its margin, 

 and the hills rising behind on either side, running in a nearly 

 parallel course from the entrance of the lough, and stretching 

 far away up the valley of the Lagan. On the County Antrim 

 side the most prominent of the hills near the city are Ben 

 Madighan, now called Cave Hill (i,i88 feet), with its bold 

 precipitous cliffs and the great [)rehistoric fort of MacArt 

 standing out in bold relief on its highest point ; the Black 

 B 



