Under the Crumlin Road

The Crumlin Road Gaol in north Belfast, built to designs by celebrated architect Sir Charles Lanyon, received its first prisoners (106 in number, marched in procession in chains) in 1846, succeeding Carrickfergus as the new Antrim County Gaol. Directly opposite, also from Lanyon designs, the grander Crumlin Road Courthouse was built at the same time. The new prison initially housed women and children as well as male prisoners. It was divided between four wings (A–D), each three stories high, and each holding different categories of prisoner (remand, sentenced, lifer, long-term prisoner).  

These two buildings of course transformed the justice system in Belfast but also the Crumlin Road itself, formerly an area of gentlemen's residences and now an important thoroughfare for a rapidly growing city. 

Crumlin Road gaol remained in use until 1996 when the last prisoners were moved out of a now crumbling building. In the intervening years, more than 25,000 prisoners, including Eamon de Valera, were incarcerated at 'the Crum'. Seventeen men were executed at the prison, the last being Robert McGladdery in 1961. The site was extensively renovated as a tourist attraction which opened in 2012.

Crumlin Road gaol yard

Wing views from the Circle

Crumlin Road Prison/Belfast Gaol

Crumlin Road gaol was modelled on Pentonville Prison in London, which opened in 1842 using the 'Radial Cellular System'. Lanyon's designs are in PRONI (see above).


Among the highlights of the visitor attraction is a walk along an underground tunnel linking the gaol with the courthouse. The tunnel, built in 1849-50, lies only one and a half metres beneath the Crumlin road, and presumably was built with the cut and cover technique. As recently as 2023, construction workers discovered another tunnel on the site, linking D wing with the nearby Mater Hospital. (And in 1958 at least one other tunnel was built, as Gerry Adams recounts, by republican remand prisoners trying to escape).

The tunnel to the courthouse was used to take remand prisoners for trial and depending on how the trial went, convicted prisoners to serve their sentence in prison. 

Some of the original Victorian brickwork is still visible but much of the tunnel under the road is now clad in reinforced concrete, designed to help protect from Troubles-era car bombs on the surface.


With more than 150 years of history to explore, from Famine-era Ireland, through the creation of Northern Ireland, the Troubles, internment, multiple executions, escapes, and murder within its own walls, the Crum visitor attraction certainly embraces its past. 

Location: Crumlin Rd, Belfast, UK

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