Welcome to Queens University!
History of the Area:
Infomation from Wikipedia
Queens University Belfast has its roots in the Belfast Academically Institution, which was founded in 1810 and still remains as the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The present university was first chartered as “Queen’s College, Belfast” as it used to be associated with Queens College, Cork and Queen’s College, Galway as part of the Queen’s University of Ireland - which was founded to encourage higher education for Presbyterians and Catholics, as a counterpart to Trinity College, Dublin. Queen’s College opened in 1849. It’s main building, the Lanyon Building, was designed by English Architect, Sir Charles Lanyon. When opening, the university had 23 professors and 195 students. Some of the first students took examinations in the University of London. In 1908, the Irish Universities Act dissolved the Royal University. Of Ireland and created two separate universities: the current National University of Ireland and Queen’s University of Belfast.
How to Get to the Area:
By Car:
A multitude of onstreet parking is available near-by to GZ, most of which is payed for. Please observe parking restrictions and time limits associated. The cache is located on Botanic Avenue, key ‘Queen’s University’ into your sat-nav and this will ring you to the general location.
By Bus:
This cache, and area associated with it is best approached by the bus. For direct access to GZ, take Translink Metro Bus 7A, 7B, 7C or 7D to stop ‘College Gardens’. These buses leave Howard Street. Another near-by bus stop is called ‘Queen’s University’ which is serviced by bus routes 8A, 8B, 8C or 8D. These 8 buses leave from Donegal Square East. Corridor 7 will leave you to the back of the university and give you direct access to the cache site. However, if you are a tourist and want to see Queen’s University (which I highly recommend you do!) I would recommend taking a 8 bus to the front of Queen’s University and taking the walk through the grounds to the cache site and getting corridor 7 back to the City Centre.
By Train:
The nearest train station to this cache is Botanic. This station leaves you with a 5-10 minute walk to GZ. When leaving the station turn left onto Botanic Avenue and walk straight ahead to the cache site. I would not however recommend travelling by train from Belfast as the site is more accessible by bus from Belfast. Botanic station is serviced by all train lines so you will only need to travel on one train.
The cache:
The cache container is really unique, and blends in really well with its surroundings. Please handle the container DELICATELY, as making one of these containers up can take up to two weeks, and make others miss out on finding this unique cache. Also, I am going to be strictly informing the rule of ‘No Sign No find’ On this cache, due to the location and type of of container. I will periodically be checking the logs on this cache and deleting online logs that haven’t signed the logbook. Replace the cache EXACTLY AS FOUND. Your own writing implement is not recommended, but required!
Finally Happy Caching!