The Laganside cycle path
The Laganside cycle path is part of the National Cycle Network (NCN) Route 9 and links the Lagan Towpath to the Belfast Lough Cycle Way (NCN Route 93).
With over 500,000 recorded visits a year, the 12-mile Lagan Towpath connecting Belfast with Sprucefield (Lisburn) qualifies as the most popular public pathway in Northern Ireland.
During 2006/7 works undertaken in partnership with SUSTRANS on the Edenderry, Drumbridge and Lambeg sections of towpath have widened and improved the surface to NCN standards, wherever practicable.
The Gasworks
The Gasworks is one of Belfast’s most famous landmarks.
The park’s distinctive funnel and clock tower mark the site where the city’s gas-making industry began production in the 19th century.
The site, located near Cromac Street on ground owned by the Marquis of Donegall, opened in 1822 and supplied coal gas for street lighting and domestic and industrial use for all Greater Belfast as far as Carrickfergus and Bangor.
Coal was originally unloaded from barges at Cromac Dock on the now culverted Blackstaff River.
Belfast Corporation (now the council) used two years' profits from the gas industry to pay for the construction of Belfast City Hall which opened in 1906.
By the end of World War II in 1945, around 120,000 people were using gas from the Gasworks site.
However, by the 1960s, demand declined as new technologies began to emerge and production finally stopped altogether in 1988.
Regeneration work
The Gasworks site was purchased by the council, together with central government and the Laganside Corporation, in the early 1990s.
The land was considered unsuitable for most uses due to contamination but a major refurbishment programme, part-funded by the European Union, soon turned the area into a modern business park. The redevelopment won the 1998 RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Award for Reclamation.
Today, the 9 hectare site is home to a wide range of businesses, including a 132-room Radisson SAS hotel, the Halifax Centre, shops, small enterprise workshops, offices and purpose-built business units.
The area itself has been re-landscaped and offers a quiet place to escape from the bustle of the nearby city centre.
The site retains some of the original Gasworks buildings and also has a number of public art pieces including a unique water feature.
It also offers public access to the Laganside cycle path (via the Blackstaff Railway Bridge gate between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.) so that you can enjoy a pleasant walk or cycle along the river towards Donegall Quay or upstream to the Lagan Valley Regional Park.
The MournesRambler II Series
There are currently 24 caches in the MournesRambler II series which is designed to lure you away from the bright city lights along the Lagan Towpath:
The recommended mode of transport for this series is a bicycle, but it should also be quite feasible to complete it on foot. Have you found them all? If you have done them all one after the other please let us know (in your log entry) how long it took you so that others will know roughly how long it might take them.
The Cache
The cache itself is a small tab-lock container containing a log book, pencil, pencil sharpener and a few small swaps. It is hidden at the edge of the Laganside cycle path not far from the entrance to the Gasworks at the Blackstaff Railway Bridge and between the "Bottle Top" and "Millenium Milepost" art pieces (pictured above).
The cycle path is frequented by muggles (especially at the start and end of the normal working day) so please use stealth when looking for and re-hiding the cache. You will need to be careful of the nearby thorny bushes.