Visitor Experience Improvements Launched at Crumlin Road Gaol

The launch attended by Ciaran Doherty (Tourism NI), Jim Derby (Department of Infrastructure) and Phelim Devlin (Crumlin Road Gaol) builds on the initial steps in 2021 to introduce a self-guided offering at the Victorian Prison. Included in the latest investment, supported by Tourism NI’s Experience Development Programme, were additional Holograms, an Augmented Reality Zone, Digital Signage and Audio Guides.

Phelim Devlin, Director of Crumlin Road Gaol commented; “We are delighted with the completion of the second phase of our self-guided tour experience. We can now supply over 5 hours of material for visitors to indulge in across many different mediums. The Holograms allows us to bring the 150 years of history to life and AR Zone allows visitor to become fully immerged in the Crumlin Road Gaol when it was a working prison.”

“The biggest improvement of this development would be the introduction of the Audio Visual Handsets. The Handsets will allow the visitors to navigate their way around the 13 acre site while listening to anecdotal stories and viewing videos and images. As well as offering the content in 6 foreign languages there is also a facility to allow British Sign Language so all material is interpreted via sign videos and this allows the tour to be more accessible.”

“We still offer our famous guided tour but more people are now opting for the Self Guided as they can explore everything that Crumlin Road Gaol has to offer at their own pace. As we continue to guide the tourism industry out of the Covid pandemic, I have no doubt that these improvements will play an important role in attracting new and repeat visitors to Crumlin Road Gaol and Belfast.”

Ciaran Doherty, Tourism NI’s Head of Regions and Investment Programmes, said; “Tourism NI is delighted to support the self-guided experience at Crumlin Road Gaol.

“The programme has received significant funding from Tourism NI as Crumlin Road Gaol is an important part of Northern Ireland’s offering,” he said.

“Tourism NI supported this project under the Experience Development Programme which will boost efforts to attract domestic and out of state visitors to this area”.

The new experience at Crumlin Road Gaol is open 7 days a week from 10am to 4:30pm.