The Belfast Botanic Gardens stretch across 28 acres near Queen's University, a fine Victorian public park with a remarkable glass Palm House and a curvilinear Tropical Ravine. The gardens are open daily and free to enter, and they're used by university students and local residents as an everyday green space — picnicking on the lawns in summer, walking the tree-lined paths in autumn.
The Palm House, built in the 1840s, is the centrepiece: a great curved greenhouse of cast iron and glass filled with tropical plants, with a central section containing a pair of banana plants that have been growing since the Victorian era. The Tropical Ravine next door — a sunken greenhouse designed to simulate a tropical jungle — is if anything more spectacular, a high domed space dripping with palms, ferns, and giant water lilies. The Ulster Museum is adjacent to the gardens and free to enter.