The original and best Belfast walking tours. Join our award winning local tour guides and discover Belfast’s fascinating history from the experts.
LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: June 2022 – Our ‘A History Of Terror’ tour runs every day, starting at 10.30am. Our ‘Best of Belfast’ tour is normally available on 3 or 4 days each week, mostly between Thursday and Monday. Our tours do regularly sell out during high season (especially at the weekends), so we advise you to book early to avoid disappointment! Please check the booking calendars for availability. You can also read about our Covid Safety Measures here.
Scheduled, private & group Belfast walking tours
A History of Terror Tour
Our city centre tour ‘A History of Terror’ is the No.1 Belfast walking tour. The tour explains the history of the Troubles and the path to peace. It was ranked the No.4 Experience in the UK at the TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice Awards in 2019. Read more….
The Best of Belfast Tour
The ‘Best of Belfast’ walking tour is packed with insider knowledge and gives you the perfect introduction to our city’s history, culture, spirit, and people. Belfast may be best known for the Titanic and the Troubles, but this city centre tour also allows you to explore and discover what makes Belfast so special; our art, architecture, legends and landmarks. Read more….
More tours & experiences
Meet our guides
Our guides are all locals, and experts in their fields. Our lead guide is the UK’s ‘Top Tour Guide 2019’ (Wanderlust World Guide Awards) and we are graded 5 Stars by Tourism NI. (And we nearly won the award for the ‘Most Authentic Northern Ireland Experience’ at the NI Tourism Awards.)
Paul Donnelly, lead guide

“I’ve been the lead tour guide at DC Tours since 2013. I love what I do because it’s real, powerful and cathartic.”
Mark Wylie, Owner & Tour Guide

“I want my tours to be meaningful experiences where guests get to really connect with the city and understand what makes it tick.”
James Ellson, Tour Guide

“Being a tour guide gives me the opportunity to show off my beloved city and give something back.”
Gabe Nelson, Tour Guide

“Every time I take visitors round the city and show them where we are now, it gives me a sense of wonder.”
Jessica Barreda, Tour Guide

“I take the Spanish tours – I love what I do because I get to meet people and learn something every day.”
Covid-19 Safety Measures
DC Tours are ‘Good To Go’ accredited and extensive Covid-19 Safety Measures are in place to ensure the health and safety of our guests at all times.


Our Best Selling Belfast Walking Tours
A History of Terror
Our award-winning expert guides explain the Troubles and the peace process with honesty and great insight from an entirely neutral perspective. The tour visits the locations of major events in the city centre during the most turbulent period of the conflict in the early seventies. It lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes and covers 1½ miles.
The Best of Belfast
Our Best of Belfast walking tour is the perfect way to discover what makes our city unique. The tour allows you to explore Belfast and hear the stories and history behind our people, culture, architecture and art over a route of 1¾ miles. Packed with insider knowledge from our local guides, you’ll also discover hidden corners of the city centre to ensure you make the most of your trip!
Read our reviews!
Read our reviews!
It was the most memorable part of a fascinating trip to Northern Ireland.
Paul was fantastic and provided background and stories that all visitors to Belfast should know. He was very courteous and left no question unanswered. This is a “do not miss” tour and my entire family recommends it.
This tour was the highlight of our weekend in Belfast and is a must-do for anyone wanting a balanced, insightful and revealing commentary on Belfast’s recent history.
It absolutely was one of the highlights of our trip to Belfast. We have done a lot of walking tours all over the world. This is one of the best we’ve done.
Little did we realise how this tour would help us leave two days later with the city having captured a place in our hearts.
Our guide Paul was absolutely amazing. His passion and enthusiasm overflowed, so much so that we nearly forgot how wet we were. We were so captivated that we loved every minute. He was so knowledgeable and completely unbiased.
I think that a visit to Belfast and this tour is a must for every single person in Britain, to see and hear the story of the troubles in what is a corner of their nation.
I am so grateful to Paul for the part he played in the wonderful eye opening experience that my family and I have just had. Thanks again Paul.
This was the most thought provoking, informative and riveting tour I’ve ever experienced.
I wanted to go on a tour which provided a great deal of insight but avoided some of the crass zoo exhibitionism or sensationalist slant which I worried the black taxi tours would lean too heavily on. I got exactly what I wanted in this tour.
The tour lasted about 2 and a half hours and honestly, I could have walked around for another two hours listening and reflecting on what Paul was telling me.
It was massively interesting, sent my head spinning with thoughts and filled me with empathy, and immensely compelling.
An absolute must for any traveller who wants to get under the skin of Northern Ireland today.
What an absolutely incredible tour. If you want to understand what this city is about, take this tour. Our highlight in Belfast.
Paul is nothing short of superb. Forget the Black Cabs, this is the best tour if you want to begin to understand this conflict. His ability to communicate the strategic, political and social imperatives that drove people’s actions had us spellbound.
There is a very real reason why this tour is so popular. Paul is the epitome of the perfect guide–extremely knowledgeable, passionate about his city and its history, interesting, funny, and truly engaging.
One of the highlights of our trip to Ireland! This tour was the first of our trip and really put into perspective the troubles within Ireland and the affects on the people. Mark’s knowledge and personable demeanour was the driving force of the tour. We have travelled all of Ireland and 18 days later continue to relate about the points Mark has made. Thank you so much!
Excellent tour. Mark communicated the complex history of Northern Ireland in a balanced manner, weaving key incidents into a story spanning hundreds of years. The 2.5 hours flew past.
An excellent tour- very informative and easy to understand. Recommend as a must-do activity in Belfast.
Did the tour yesterday with Paul. He is a great good, really engaging with a depth of knowledge delivered with a mix of historical fact, anecdotes and personal experience. Highly recommended to get a real insight into the history of the city.
Mark was a fabulous guide – informative and unbiased – and held our attention the whole time. Thank you!! Highly recommended for all.
Paul is a highly knowledgeable and engaging guide. You really get a sense of someone who knows every street and everyone in the city of Belfast for over a long period of time. And his humorous nature counters the often dark subject matter in a measured way. The walk itself is gentle and the radio system means that you will not miss out on a word spoken.
Travelling over from Scotland this was top of our to do list. Mark was amazing with our group. His knowledge of Belfast and the history/conflict that happened here was fantastic!!!! We learned so much from this tour and it was definitely the best thing we done whilst visiting the city. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting. Can’t wait to come back and explore the city further!!
Awesome, sensational content & explanatory information, the guide from DC Tours was just great, such a gobsmacking history of social struggle by all. If political and social science is up your alley then this is the tour for you, only thing disappointing is that it ended! A great 2-2.5hrs!
I would recommend this tour. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable, the earphones and audio packs ensure that each person taking the tour can hear everything being said. It’s difficult to pack such a history into just over two hours but you get a real feel for the troubles, the city, the causes, outcomes and people.
This tour was one of the best that I have ever had. It was extremely knowledgeable and insightful. Having earphones to hear was great as I really wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it. I also went on the bus tour which was really good and would also recommend to see the Falls, Shankill etc., but the DC Tour was different class. Absolutely superb.
Informative, reflective and quite simply the best tour I have ever taken.
A must do for visitors and locals alike.
Read our blog!
Our blog is packed with historical stories and our guides personal reminiscences of growing up in Belfast in the Seventies and Eighties. It’s the perfect way to start preparing yourself for your trip to Belfast!
Tales From The Tours
People often ask me “what makes a good tour?”, but this is inevitably from the perspective of the participant. Recently I was asked the question “what makes a good tour for a guide?” And that is a bloody good question.
Belfast & Branagh
The DC Tours phone rang on Monday, and I answered professionally and courteously as usual. Nadia, a pleasant woman with a posh London accent, quickly explained that BBC Breakfast wanted to interview me as a Belfast tour guide and historian about the Kenneth Branagh film ‘Belfast’.
Ghosts Of Christmas Past
The sprouts have wreaked (reeked?) their havoc, the remaining turkey has been curried and the tree shoved back up its hole, it is time to reflect on the Christmases past. Every year should be a learning year and whilst it has been an ‘annus horriblis’ to borrow a phrase, this year I have learned several things