The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club is a club of naturalists based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1863, the club was an important part of the education system for Victorian naturalists and worked largely through first-hand field studies.[1] It has been credited with playing an important role in the elucidation of glacial and post-glacial sea levels, climates and fossil beaches and issuing the first of the regional handbooks for meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science as far back as 1874.[2] The club has four sections, Archeology & History, Botany, Geology and Zoology, and has published several books and a periodical. The Herbarium of the BNFC is now in the Ulster Museum.[3]
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The club was formed as the first of a series of Field Clubs (followed by clubs in Dublin (1886), Cork (1892), and Limerick (1892)) established in response to the increasing interest in natural sciences in the Victorian Society of Ireland.[1] The first public meeting was held on the March 6, 1863. Ralph Tate drafted a document which provided a draft Constitution. The first meeting was held in the Museum Buildings, now the Ulster Museum.[4] The first field trip organizied by the Club occurred on the 6th April 1863. 88 members travelled to Islandmagee to collect fossils. Since then members of the Club have visited many areas including the Cavehill, the Giant's Causeway, Mount Stewart and Strangford Lough to name but a few.[5]