Belfast Harbour
Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Northern Ireland, handling most of Northern Ireland’s seaborne trade and similar of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a vital gateway for exports and consumer goods. It is also Northern Ireland’s leading logistics and distribution hub.
The Belfast Harbour Estate is home to many well-known Northern Ireland businesses such as George Best Belfast City Airport, Harland and Wolff, Spirit AeroSystems, Odyssey, Titanic Quarter and Titanic Belfast.
Belfast is only one of two ports on the island of Ireland to handle a full range of cargoes, from freight vehicles to containers, liquid bulk and passenger services and cruise calls. Belfast Harbour moved over 23 million tonnes of cargo in 2015.
BBC One Northern Ireland made a documentary which was broadcast in 2022. Belfast Harbour entitled Belfast Harbour, Cruises, Cranes and Cargo in April 2020 examining the role of the Port of Belfast in Northern Ireland’s economy.
History of Belfast Harbour can date back to 1613 when a Royal Charter for the incorporation of Belfast specified the need for a wharf at the confluence of the rivers Lagan and Farset in what’s now known as Belfast’s High Street.
Records show that by the mid 1600’s there were 29 vessels owned in Belfast with a total tonnage of 1,100 tonnes. Trade continued to expand throughout the century, to the extent that the original quay was enlarged, to accommodate the increasing number of boats.
By the early 18th century Belfast had replaced Carrickfergus as the most important port in Ulster and made additional accommodation to cater for such. A number of privately owned wharves were constructed on reclaimed land. Throughout the century trade continued to expand as Belfast assumed a greater role in the trading activities of the country. In 1785 the Irish Parliament passed an act to cater for the town’s burgeoning port. A new body was formed. The Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port and Harbour area.
The Port remained disadvantaged by the natural restrictions of very shallow water with many bends in the channel approach and inadequate quays. At that time ships were forced to lighten their loads downstream at Garmoyle before they could dock at the quays and fully unload. This cost importers extra handling charges and the need for additional Customs supervision.
These problems, with an increasing volume of trade, led to a new government act of 1837 under the Westminster Parliament. This reconstituted the Board and gave it powers to make major improvements to the harbour by the formation of a new channel. Work on straightening the river commenced in 1839 and in 1841 the first bend had been eliminated. This was the beginning of the creation of what was to become known as the Victoria Channel. The Channel was completed in 1849 and Clarendon Dock was opened in 1851 and the Dufferin and Spencer Docks opened soon after.
In 1847 the Belfast Harbour Commissioners was formed. This new body had wider powers, completed the second stage of the new channel just two years later. From that time the Commissioners had developed and improved the harbour, reclaiming land to accommodate its new quays and changes in shipping and cargo-handling methods.
HMS Caroline is a First World War light cruiser permanently berthed in Belfast Harbour. In World War II the harbour of Belfast was used by the Royal Navy as the base for many of the ships which escorted Atlantic and Russian convoys. HMS Caroline was a First World War light cruiser permanently berthed in Belfast Harbour. It served as the training ship for some reservists as the headquarters for the Ulster Division Royal Naval Reserve. After extensive restoration work, HMS Caroline opened to the public in June 2016 as a museum and part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
Belfast West Power Station opened in 1961 on a site in the port subleased to the Belfast Corporation Electricity Department. This subleased is today held by Northern Ireland Electricity. This station continued to generate electricity until its closure in March 2002. In July 2007 the station’s three large chimneys were demolished by controlled explosions and the remainder of the site was cleared over the following months. This site continues to be managed by NIE on behalf of the utility regulator. The site is currently used for coal storage and sorting.
Management
Belfast Port is one of the UK’s many “Trust Ports” an independent statutory body. Trust Ports are not owned by Government, they are obliged to operate independently and on a commercial basis. Its Board known as ‘Belfast Harbour Commissioners’ is appointed by Northern Ireland’s Department for Regional Development on the basis of open public advertisement.
Law enforcement
The port is patrolled by the Belfast Harbour Police, which is one of the oldest constabularies in the British Isles, dating back over 150 years. In addition to traditional port users the Harbour Police now provide a range of policing services to tenants, residents and visitors who frequent the Harbour Estate.
Freight
In 2014 almost half a million freight vehicles used the Port, a slight increase over 2013. By 2019, Stena Line’s Belfast-Loch Ryan route, Belfast-Birkenhead and Belfast-Heysham service together carried 542,000 freight vehicles went through the port which was a record number for nine consecutive years.
Almost 125,000 containers and 6.0 million tonnes of bulk cargo were handled in 2009. By 2019, bulk cargo had increased to 9.9 million tonnes and the number of containers handled at Victoria Terminal increased to more than 130,000 units, carrying over 2 million tonnes of freight. The total trade tonnage in 2019 exceeded 24 million tonnes for the second successive year.
In 1993, container operations moved from York Dock and Herdman Channel to Victoria Terminal 3 which is a new terminal equipped with three Liebherr ship-to-shore gantry cranes and rail-mounted stacking gantry cranes. The terminal was operated by Coastal Container Line Limited who are a subsidiary of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, later Peel Ports Belfast. VT3 served feeder traffic from Southampton, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Liverpool Antwerp, and Felixstowe,
In 2006, a rival service operated by a subsidiary of the Irish Continental Group named ‘Belfast Container Terminal’, began to operate a service to Antwerp and Rotterdam from the Herdman Channel using a mobile ship to shore crane and 3 straddle carriers.
In 2019, Belfast Harbour announced a £40million project to upgrade VT3 with 9 new remote-controlled Kalmar rubber-tyres gantry cranes and two Liebherr ship-to-shore gantry cranes. Five of the new cranes were delivered that November. The first two went into service in 2020.
Passenger services
Over 1.4 million passengers used the port’s ferry services in 2014. Routes from the Port of Belfast include Stena Line to Cairnryan. Stena discontinued its operations to Stranraer in 2011 and with its ferries, MS Stena Superfast VII and MS Stena Superfast VIII, sailing to its new port at Cairnryan.
Stena Line to Birkenhead. Stena bought this operation from DFDS, renaming the two ships MS Stena Lagan and MS Stena Mersey. In early 2020, the Stena Edda – the first of two new super ferries on the route – went into service on this route. The Stena terminal at Victoria Terminal 2 had been upgraded to accommodate the larger vessels.
Cruise ships
It is increasingly popular with cruise liners. The 2 cruise berths that are used are the Pollock dock, named after Northern Irish politician Hugh MacDowell Pollock, for smaller ships and the Stormont Wharf (a deep water berth) for its larger ships, The extended Stormont Wharf was opened on 30 June 2009 by the Grand Princess.
Holywood Exchange
Belfast Harbour Commissioners with its partners made the first planning application for Holywood Exchange (previously known as D5 or Harbour Exchange) Nov1995. Planning permission was granted twice and then successfully challenged. The third time planning permission was granted it was again challenged, but this time unsuccessfully. Construction began in December 2002 and when completed the development consisted of a retail warehouse centre, a Sainsbury’s store and service station, and a B&Q store. A 29,000 m2 (312,000 ft2) IKEA store opened on 13 December 2007.
Property
Belfast Harbour has extensive property interests covering about 1,950 acres. 855 acres are used directly for port operations, 90 acres are reserved for nature conservation and the remaining 1,005 are either leased or under negotiation. Belfast Harbour’s largest property project is the Titanic Quarter, which is “co-promoted” with Titanic Quarter Limited.
ShutterSpeed Ireland have over 300 photos and video multimedia of ‘Spectacular locations of Ireland’
Some of the information sourced in this blog has come from-
www.ireland.com
www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com
www.discovernorthernireland.com
www.castles.nl
Are you visiting Northern Ireland?
Northern Ireland on Tripadvisor Here
Looking for a tour guide? Shutter speed Ireland can recommend Milliken Tours Ireland
A professional, family run tour group who will go that extra yard to make your visit to our country fun filled and memorable.
Contact Here
Sources Used:
The Planetd.com
Love Irish Tours
History.com