County Derry

About County Derry

County Derry, also known as Londonderry, stretches from the Antrim plateau to the Sperrins, from the banks of the Foyle to the north coast. Its walled city is one of the finest examples of a 17th century planned city in Europe, its walls never breached in siege. The county's complex history of plantation, rebellion and emigration has produced a people of fierce cultural pride.

History

Derry city was the site of the famous siege of 1688 to 1689, when the Protestant citizens held out for 105 days against the Jacobite army. The plantation of the city by London trade guilds in the early 17th century gave the county its alternative name. The Bogside, on the edge of the walled city, became famous worldwide during the Troubles.

How Derry families left Ireland

Derry was the primary emigration port for all of Ulster's northwest, Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Derry families all departed from the Foyle quays. The Scots-Irish emigration of the 18th century passed largely through Derry, as did the Famine emigration of the 1840s. Many Ulster-Scots families in the American south trace their departure to Derry port.

Places worth visiting in County Derry

• The Walled City of Derry, the only completely intact walled city in Ireland, its circuit walk one of the finest in Europe
• The Museum of Free Derry, the powerful museum of the Civil Rights movement and the events of Bloody Sunday
• Mussenden Temple, the notable clifftop folly overlooking the north coast
• Ulster American Folk Park, just over the Tyrone border, the definitive museum of the emigrant experience