Fodor's Expert Review High Street

Off High Street, especially down to Ann Street (parallel to the south), run narrow lanes and alleyways called entries. Though mostly cleaned up and turned into chic shopping lanes, they still hang on to something of their raffish character, and have distinctive pubs with little-altered Victorian interiors. Among the most notable are the Morning Star (Pottinger's Entry off High Street), with its large windows and fine curving bar; White's Tavern (entry off High Street), Belfast's oldest pub, founded in 1630, with plush seats and a big, open fire; and the delectable Muriel's Café Bar in Church Lane, with its damask drapes and velvet seats, themed on a 1920s hat shop. Look into St. George's Church, at one end of High Street, a beautiful building with a magnificent portico transported by canal from the house of the eccentric Earl Bishop of Derry.

Don't miss Kelly's Cellars, a 200-year-old pub in Bank Street, not far from High Street.

The bar was the meeting place of the militant nationalist group, the Society of United Irishmen, whose leader Wolfe Tone is remembered as the founder of Irish Republicanism. A colorful wall mural erected in the upstairs bar in 2018 features the poet Seamus Heaney, writers such as Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, and Samuel Beckett, and musicians including Phil Lynott and Sinéad O'Connor. At lunchtime they serve tasty bowls of filling beef stew, but get there early as stocks are limited ( 028/9024--6058).