The Boys Brigade Heritage Museum EHOD 2025

About

The Ganaway Training & Activity Centre is synonymous with camping in The Boys’ Brigade. From its early days of facilitating holidays for many working class Boys from the Greater Belfast Area, thousands of Boys would have descended on Ganaway during the summer months in the 1920’s, 1930’s and right up to the second world war when it was then considered not safe to have large camps as they may have resembled army installations.

Nowadays, Ganaway is the chosen venue for many youth groups, church fellowships, school groups and many more, wishing to avail of the modern facilities for their residential or activity breaks. The BB still makes use of these facilities and it is here that a specially created Heritage Museum encapsulates a comprehensive history of The Boys’ Brigade since its formation in 1883.

The Heritage Museum offers a unique visitor attraction set within the tranquil grounds of our Garden of Peace and Reconciliation and The Beacon meeting place at Ganaway which is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Ards Peninsula between Millisle and Ballywalter. The brick core is a replica of the late 19th Century Charlotte Street Hall, Belfast where The Boys’ Brigade first began in Ireland in 1888. It replicates the front façade, entrance and railings of the original building of the Donegal Pass. Inside, unlike the original, it has 2 stories of accommodation.

In addition to providing for the display of Boys’ Brigade and other memorabilia, The Heritage Museum provides accommodation for meetings and exhibitions. Together with the near-by Beacon, it provides a modern assembly of buildings that define space and a mood and character different from anywhere else within the Ganaway Centre. The BB Heritage Centre was renamed the Maurice Williamson Boys’ Brigade Heritage Museum in recognition of Maurice’s contribution to most of the developments that have been carried out at Ganaway over recent years.