Skip to content

Castle and country park closed due to security alert

Jessica Lawrence
BBC News NI
Reporting fromNorth Belfast
Pacemaker Two yellow, blue and white police cars outside the entrance to Cave Hill Country Park, with police tape across the road. Gates leading to a wooded hill are in the background and a red-brick detached house is to the right hand side of the picture.Pacemaker
Entrances to Cave Hill Country Park and Belfast Castle on the Antrim Road have been closed.

Police are at the scene of an ongoing security alert in north Belfast.

Entrances to Cave Hill Country Park and Belfast Castle on the Antrim Road have been closed.

The public have been asked to avoid the area at this time.

Residents said they have heard a series of controlled explosions coming from Cave Hill, starting at about 08:00 BST.

One resident, who lives in Downview Park West near the country park, said police were patrolling the gates from about 21:20 BST on Tuesday night.

The man said a cordon was set up at the nearby park entrance from early on Wednesday morning as he went to walk his dogs.

Nearby some tourists were disappointed to be unable to visit the castle.

Doug Hayward, from Fort Worth, Texas, had travelled to Belfast Castle with his wife on Wednesday morning after their flight to Edinburgh was cancelled.

"We got stuck at the airport this morning so we came back to Belfast for the day to look around," he told BBC News NI.

"We'd thought we would come to the castle but it's closed so I guess we'll go back to the city centre."