Royal Botanic Gardens
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS: Balloon ascents
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
NOTES: In their excellent book Civil Aviation in Northern Ireland, Guy Warner and Ernie Cromie have this to tell us. It appears the first recorded balloon ascent in Ulster took place in 1848, the aeronaut being a Mr Greer, and the location being the "Botanic Gardens" - which presumably is here? It does make me wonder if the newspapers might have made a typo, and perhaps this aeronaut was Mr Green, the by then famous English balloonist?
However, their next item contains a most comprehensive report, from which this is just an excerpt: "One very notable flight took place some 17 years later and received extensive coverage in the press. The Belfast newspaper, the Northern Whig, reported in July 1865:
'FRIGHTFUL BALLOON DISASTER'
'On Monday July 3rd the balloon ascent of Mr Henry Coxwell, the aeronaut, took place from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Belfast. The 'Research', the name given to to the balloon, is the largest aerial machine ever constructed and when inflated presents a very handsome as well as gigantic appearance. It is painted a light brown colour, rellieved round the centre with devices in yellow and the words 'Coxwell's Research'. It was purchased by public subscription and presented to Mr Coxwell by a commitee of scientific gentlemen. Probably some 10,000 to 12,000 people were in the gardens and the open and beautiful sward in front of the conservatory presented a most animated appearance with the moving throng of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen. At a quarter to six the monster rose in the air'."
Today of course we would not regard this flight as a disaster. It certainly went seriously amiss but nobody was seriously hurt, all managing to get out before the errant balloon left Ulster shores. It appears the balloon was later found on the Isle of Islay in western Scotland.
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