Derry understand · Derry tourist information
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Derry tourist information
Derry tourist information
Situated on the banks of River Foyle, Derry is the second largest city in Northern Ireland and one of the oldest inhabited places in the whole island of Ireland. As they say there, 'Derry was a city when Belfast was still a swamp'. Derry's history dates back over 1,450 years, a lasting reminder of the early inhabitants of the area is the Iron Age fort, just over the border in County Donegal, known as the Grianan of Aileach.
In the 6th Century St Columba/Colmcille established a monastery in Derry. Shifting ten centuries later to the Plantation of Ulster, King James I of England had the wealthy guilds of London build up the city of Derry (hence the title Londonderry) and surround it by the defensive walls that still ring the city today.
These walls witnessed one of the most prominent events in the history of Derry. In 1688 the city was laid siege by the Earl of Antrim and the Catholic forces of James II, the English king who was deposed in favour of Protestant William of Orange. The settlers of the city who were protestant, barricaded themselves within the walls, when a group of apprentice boys from London on seeing the on coming forces, locked the city gates and so started the Great Siege of Derry.
The siege was to be the longest in British history, lasting some 105 days, during which an estimated third of the city’s then population of 30,000 died through disease and starvation. When James II himself rode up to the city walls and lay down terms for surrender he was greeted with shouts of ‘No Surrender’. The siege was finally broken when the relief ship Mountjoy broke the boom which was laid across the River Foyle beside the city.
However the legacy of the Great Siege of Derry lasted for centuries with the Catholic and Protestant communities in Derry still largely divided today. During the years of the Troubles, Derry witnessed some of the most prominent and terrible events of those times. It was on Derry's Bogside area that British soldiers shot dead 14 civil rights protesters in what became known as Bloody Sunday. The majority of the Bogside murals commemorate this tragic loss of innocences.
Since the peace process in Northern Ireland, Derry is slowly emerging as an upbeat cosmopolitan city with great potential and huge tourist interest. In July 2010, Derry was awarded City of Culture for 2013. A lot of Derry’s sights are meshed with its history, the 16th Century walls which surround the city are among the oldest and the best preserved citadel walls in Europe.
A huge percentage of Derry’s population fall into the 20 – 30 age group and there are plenty of places to cater for them with lots of clothes shops and boutiques, pubs, bars and clubs and Derry's traditional Irish and folk music scene are well established.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Derry
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Derry - updated May 2024
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Derry Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.