I’ve been to Derry before, stayed in Carnlough and did the Giants Causeway but I’ve never been to the city and walked the walls… that changes this weekend…..
We arrive Friday evening and it is sunny and warm… woohoo!!! We’re staying in an Airbnb apartment on the Foyle River and we start by a walk along the river. I love the fact that Derry now has a peace bridge that connects what was (and possibly still is) a Catholic side with a Protestant side.
We walk across the bridge to The Walled City brewery and have an amazing meal. It’s quite fancy and not what you might expect at a brewery. I order a really nice glass of white wine so then I order another!!
The sky looks nice as we look back over the bridge and head home… no cardigans needed tonight, it’s roasting!!
Back on our side, we walk through the city instead of along the river and get our first view of the walls.
Beside the walls we walk up Waterloo street with a slew of busy bars one after the other… we might check these out tomorrow night, although they do appear a bit trendy and loud for us!!
There’s a massive fortress of a police station on Strand road that I think might have been featured in something I’ve seen on tv recently… I’ll have to do a bit of digging.
On Saturday morning we’re up early and ready for… you guessed it… parkrun! The starting point is literally outside our apartment block – we couldn’t have picked a closer location.
We definitely have to factor in an Ulster fry while we’re up here so after a shower we go to the Pickled Duck cafe on Ship Quay which is said to have a great fry-up.
Post brekkie we head to the Guildhall. It’s a beautiful building inside and out.
There are some really nice stained glass windows…
And some dress up clothes…
In the main hall they are getting ready for an event….
Now it’s time to start the walls. We start at Magazine Gate where we were last night. The walls are really wide, not like ramparts I’ve walked in Europe.
Not far along the way we see the Derry Girls mural. It’s fab. If anyone reading this has not watched Derry Girls, you must watch it… it is fantastic.
As we continue on there is a mixture of loyalist and republican vibes
The Derry Walls were built between 1613 and 1618. They include eight bastions and two platforms. The bastions project out from the Walls where the Walls change direction, which allowed soldiers to watch the long stretches of wall on either side. There are cannons positioned where they would have aimed and fired during the siege of Derry.
The walls consist of a 1.8-mile loop trail and there’s plenty to see along the way.
One of Derry’s most prominent buildings, St Columb’s Cathedral sits within Derry’s city walls and was built between 1628 and 1633. St Columb’s Cathedral is Derry’s oldest building and was the first Protestant cathedral built in Britain or Ireland following the reformation.
There’s another lovely old church with a picturesque graveyard (you know I love a graveyard!) further along also inside the walls. At Augustines is a neo-Gothic church from 1872. Built of whinstone with sandstone dressings, It is a very ancient church and is the site of St. Columba’s/Colmcille monastery, founded 546AD. That’s the same Columba aka Colmkille who founded Swords!
As we continue on, we look down to the road and can see the Free Derry sign. The sign, along with a memorial garden is in the middle of a fairly busy road and we are the only people there. A bloke crossing the road asks if he can take our photo so I hand him my phone and he walks a fair bit back to take our picture… in that moment I think he’s bound to run off with my phone but of course he doesn’t… he smiles and hands us back the camera having taken about 6 photos and wishes us a good day!
There are a lot of murals on the surrounding houses.
The Memorial garden is clearly from a republican standpoint. It’s quite sad reading about the hunger strikers and other people who were killed that I remember hearing on the news back in the 80’s. I have a lasting memory of the news on RTE, followed by the Northern Irish News (I wonder when that stopped (maybe my Ma or Da know)
There’s a small part of the walls to finish but it’s getting late into the afternoon and we have a causeway to see so we head back toward the apartment.
There are plenty of Dohertys in this neck of the wood..
We get the car and set out for the causeway coast. First stop is the Musenden temple. We drive onto the beach (I was here just over a year ago worth the Texas Girls) and did a much better job then of parking!! Today having just read the sign that says “be careful of soft sand” I manage to drive straight into a soft patch that I can’t move the car out of… oh God, I’m mortified… Shane has to get out and push the car, with the help of a couple of young lads on the beach! I get onto some hard sand but I’m stressed now so I send Shane out to check out the beach and the view of the tower.
I’m happy to keep driving… I won’t ever make that mistake again! We continue on to Dunluce castle. I’ve visited this caste twice and I love it but I’ve only viewed it from up top, I’ve never actually gone in. I swore next time I was here I would go in. It’s nearly 4pm so we just about have enough time [by the way how ridiculous is it that somewhere like this closes at 5pm when there’s nearly five more hours of light!!]
I’m so pleased to see the castle from inside. It’s much bigger than you’d realise.
From here we drive through the small town of Bushmills and toward the Giants Causeway. It’s after 5pm when we get there and the visitor centre is closed but once we pay for parking we can visit the causeway at our leisure. We walk along the top which is a new view for me and descend down just past the popular spot where all the cool rocks are.
It’s a nice time of the evening to view the causeway
The step count is fairly high again and we’re a bit knackered so we jump in the car for the hour journey back into Derry city.
We head out for an easy dinner at Pykes and Pommes – good tacos and burgers here. We intend to hit a few pubs. We’ve had a few recommended so we start with Blackbird which has a good range of beer but it’s packed and very loud so we stand outside but it’s raining a bit and there’s no seat under the cover…. NEXT!! We look into the bars on Waterloo street – Peadar O’Donnells is very popular but it’s jammers so that’s a NO!
Finally a pub that works.. in fairness we walked past this a couple of times and I knew this would be the spot for us… looks like it’s in bits from outside and it certainly isn’t fancy inside but it’s comfy and welcoming and we can hear ourselves chat!
We have a few here including the owners on brew called Dopey Dick and are happy out!
On Sunday morning we finish the walls and have a breakfast butty sitting outside a really nice cafe called 9 grounds. We decide we’ll visit the museum before we head back to Dublin. The museum is in the Tower by Magazine gate.
The museum tells the history of Derry chronologically and I read so much history it’s hard to take in and almost impossible to remember it all… there’s the siege of Derry, home rule, the troubles… it’s all in there.
I found out something interesting that I hadn’t realised. When we think of Home Rule (and by we I mean anyone who went to school in Ireland and learned Irish history) we think of Charles Stewart Parnell but the Home Rule organisation was created by Isaac Butt and he was a Protestant.
It’s just over a 3 hour drive to Dublin so we get on the road just after 1pm so it’s not too late when we get home (there’s some packing to do for the next adventure!). We’ve really enjoyed our trip to Derry.
odohertyelaine 