The story of Crumlin Road Gaol
The Gaol was designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, the architect behind much of Victorian Belfast, and built between 1843 and 1845 at a cost of around £60,000. Modelled in part on London's Pentonville prison, it replaced the old county gaol at Carrickfergus. In 1846 the first 106 inmates, men, women and children alike, were marched the eleven miles from Carrickfergus to the new prison in chains.
Conditions were harsh. Children as young as six or seven were held for petty thefts such as stealing food. A tunnel was driven under the Crumlin Road in 1852 to link the prison directly to the courthouse opposite, so prisoners could be brought to trial out of public view.
Lanyon's original plans had no gallows, because until 1901 executions were carried out in public outside the walls before crowds said to reach 20,000. An execution chamber was then built inside, and seventeen men were hanged at the Gaol in total. The last was Robert McGladdery in 1961, one of the final executions carried out in Northern Ireland.
The prison held internees and paramilitary prisoners through the Troubles before it finally closed on 31 March 1996. After major restoration it reopened as a visitor attraction and events venue, with the wings, cells, tunnel and hanging cell preserved for the public to walk through.