Scenes | The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra

I'm not sure if folk parks are a 'thing' outside of Ireland or what their equivalent is in the rest of the world (I remember going to something similar in Ballarat in Victoria, Australia - Sovereign Hill, anyone?) but we have a couple of them in Northern Ireland. Basically they're what I would describe as outdoor living history museums full of old buildings- banks, farms houses, cottages, printing presses, you name it, all dating from a certain period in local history that you can wander around and experience how the people of the time would have lived. The parks also often have employees in period dress  in the various houses demonstrating different skills and trades from the time, such as basket weaving or spinning wool.

One of these parks, The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum isn't too far from me but I hadn't been in years and years, not since I was little. However, my family and I decided to do something a little different yesterday afternoon and pay a visit.

This museum actually has two parts, as the name suggests, there's the folk park and then there's the transport museum which houses various old cars, trains and buses from the past 100 years or so up to the present day. There's also a Titanic exhibition as well. However, we were a little tight for time yesterday so we only made it around the folk park and even then there was still a lot of things we didn't get to see! You'd definitely need to allow yourself the full day if you were ever thinking of visiting. I think they recommend you allow 1-2 hours for the village part of the folk part, 2-3 hours for the rural part and then another couple of hours to get around the transport part of the museum.

I realised as I was uploading that I didn't take many photos of the interiors of the different houses. I guess I didn't want to overload you with pictures and I wasn't sure if it would interest anyone but I did take a few photos just so you could get a bit of a feel for the place!

I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum if you're ever in the area!