Milestone, QUB playing fields, Upper Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 5NB

Stone milestone of probable mid-18th century date, standing in a shrubbery at the edge of a line of trees within Malone Playing Fields (Queen's University Belfast), approximately 100 metres east of the eastern end of Old Coach Road, Upper Malone townland, Belfast.

The stone is rectangular in both form and plan, with a flat top. It is worn and pitted, and partly covered in lichen, and as a result little of the original inscription can now be made out. Its front face is believed to have read "Belfast 3", the figure three standing for three Irish miles — the equivalent of approximately 1.27 statute miles or 2.048 kilometres. A photograph taken in October 1962 shows the inscription "Belfast 3" traced out in chalk on the front face, and a report from the same date records that the letters "A" and "P" appeared on the back, with all other inscriptions indiscernible. The stone is currently recorded as derelict.

The milestone is associated with a stretch of road probably laid out sometime between the 1730s and 1765 and closed around 1835. This route formed part of the main road heading south-westwards from Belfast towards Lisburn, Banbridge, Newry and ultimately Dublin, for the most part following a series of ancient trackways. From the early 17th century onwards, legislation for the upkeep of roads led to some upgrading of these routes, and from the mid-18th century, as Belfast grew in economic importance, realignment occurred in places. In the 1730s the route as far as Banbridge was made into a turnpike (toll) road, and it is probably from around this time that milestones would have been established at regular distances, though older markers may well have been in place at some points prior to this.

A Donegall estate map of 1767–70 records two routes through this part of Upper Malone: the present curving course of the road, running from around the junction of present-day Dorchester Park arcing west then south-west; and a much straighter, generally flatter route to the south, running approximately along the present main drive to Malone House, then tracking along what is now the northernmost path of Barnett's Park, before continuing in a direct line across what are now the QUB playing fields, along the current Old Coach Road, and merging with the more westerly road roughly at the junction of today's Viewfort Park. A Malone estate map of 1825 shows the same arrangement and labels the former curving alignment "Old Highway", with the straighter route marked "to Lisburn" and described as "Malone Road" in the legend. This clearly indicates that the more direct route was a newer creation, most likely cut after the 1730s when the Belfast–Banbridge turnpike trust assumed management of the road, and it is probable that the milestone dates from a similar period. Both routes appear on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map, but by the time of the revised edition of 1857 much of the "newer" road had closed and been absorbed into the Malone demesne, where most of its north-eastern half had been repurposed as private drives. The western half, the current Old Coach Road, remained a public thoroughfare, serving only as an approach to the western gateway of the expanded demesne.

The closure of the road was brought about by William Wallace Legge (1769–1868), who inherited the Malone estate from his uncle in 1821. With his inherited fortune, and the security of a long lease obtained from the financially pressed 2nd Marquis of Donegall in 1829, Legge set about transforming his property: building a new mansion around 1830 (the present Malone House) and refashioning the grounds as a larger landscape park. The former house, which appears to have been built in the late 17th or early 18th century, had stood further to the west, close to the former outbuildings now known as the Belfast Activity Centre, and in the manner of many of the more modest farmhouses in the Malone area, relatively close to the road itself. Removing the road was central to the gentrification of the property. In 1915, a 110-acre swathe of land on the western and northern sides of the Malone demesne, which contained part of the site of the former road, was leased by Legge's descendants to Malone Golf Club, and a course was laid out.

The milestone is recorded in a number of contemporary newspaper accounts. In March 1926 the Northern Whig referred to "an old milestone" at the "present golf links at Malone". The Belfast News-Letter mentioned it again in July 1929 and July 1934, the latter describing it as "a very old stone near the eighth tee… in a very bad state of repair", with "the figure three hardly discernible". A short piece in Ireland's Saturday Night in June 1937 remarked that "this relic of a bygone age… to be found on Malone Golf Course… has never been moved."

In 1962 Malone Golf Club relocated to its present home at Ballydrain and the former course land was sold to Queen's University for use as playing fields. During the subsequent groundworks, the Belfast Telegraph of 5 October 1962 reported that "the National Trust asked the contractors to look out for the milestone, and it was found in a bed of shrubbery where the 17th tee used to be." Resident engineer Bill Donaldson was quoted as saying: "We were using it as a level point for our surveying before we realised what the weather-beaten rock was. It took three men and a wheelbarrow to bring it down to my office." Donaldson further explained that "we brought it in for protection while the work was going on, but when the job is completed next year we will return the stone to its site and it will be preserved by the National Trust." The stone was therefore completely removed from its position during the laying out of the playing fields in 1962 and reinstated on or close to its original position in around 1963. There is no contemporary documentation recording the reinstatement, so it is not known with certainty whether the spot where the stone now stands — although apparently in line with the former road — represents an approximate rather than precise relocation. The role of the National Trust in the whole occurrence is also unclear. Since the 1960s there appear to have been no further accounts of the stone, and it must be assumed that it has remained undisturbed from that time.