The Cache
This cache is a Small Camo test tube held in place with a magnetic strip. There is a pencil included in the initial hide.
Belfast Bus & Rail Centre.
The station is on the site of a former linen mill, beside where Durham Street crossed the Blackstaff River at the Saltwater (now Boyne) Bridge.
The Ulster Railway opened the first station on 12 August 1839. A terminal building, probably designed by Ulster Railway engineer John Godwin, was completed in 1848. Godwin later founded the School of Civil Engineering atQueen's College.
The station was Belfast's first railway terminus, and as such was called just "Belfast" until 1852. By then two other railway companies had opened termini in Belfast, so the Ulster Railway renamed its terminus "Belfast Victoria Street" for clarity. 1852 was also the year that the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway was completed, making Victoria Street the terminus for one of the most important main lines on the island of Ireland. The Ulster Railway had added a new station building in 1848, and changed the station name again to "Great Victoria Street" in 1856.
In 1876 the Ulster Railway became part of the Great Northern Railway (GNR), making Great Victoria Street the terminus for a network that extended south to Dublin and west to Londonderry and Bundoran.
Express passenger traffic to and from Dublin Connolly station was always Great Victoria Street's most prestigious traffic. The GNR upgraded its expresses over the decades and in 1947 introduced the Enterprise non-stop service between the two capitals. As Belfast suburbs grew, commuter traffic also grew in volume.
After a feasibility study was commissioned in 1986 it was agreed that a new development on the site, incorporating the reintroduction of the Great Northern Railway, was viable. The Great Northern Tower was built on the site of the old station terminus in 1992, and the second Great Victoria Street Station was opened on 30 September 1995. It is only yards from the site of its predecessor.In April 1976 Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street and the Belfast Queen's Quay terminus of the Bangor line and replaced them with a new Belfast Centralstation. Great Victoria Street station was demolished.