This is my home town. I've read more about it than is probably healthy. Derry has two names, a 17th-century walled circuit you can still walk in its entirety (which is unusual — none of the other British and Irish walled cities have the full set surviving), a complicated history that visitors mostly don't arrive prepared for, and a reputation for warmth that I find genuinely fair when I'm trying to be objective about it. This guide is the version I'd give a friend, with the historical context that makes the city legible.
On the name first, because everybody asks.
The two names
The original Irish name is Doire, meaning "oak grove" — the city sits on what was a small island in the Foyle covered in oaks, and the name reflects that. Doire is anglicised as Derry. The "London" prefix was added after 1613, when the London livery companies financed the plantation of the city as part of the wider Plantation of Ulster, the official charter calls it Londonderry.
Modern usage is mixed. The city council renamed itself Derry City and Strabane District in 1984, legally the city is still Londonderry, the airport calls itself City of Derry, the football team is Derry City, the railway station is Derry/Londonderry. Most people in the city call it Derry, some people prefer Londonderry, the legalistic compromise on signs is the slash. As a visitor, use whichever name comes naturally — people will know what you mean, and the time when the name itself was a flashpoint has largely passed.
What matters historically is more interesting than the contested name: this is a city continuously occupied since at least the early medieval period (Columba founded a monastery here in 546 AD), reshaped by Plantation in the early 17th century, defined by the Siege of 1688–89, scarred by the Troubles, and now in a period of cultural and economic reinvention.
Walking the walls
The walls are the single thing every visitor should do. Built between 1613 and 1619, they survive intact — about a mile in circuit, 26 feet high, between 12 and 35 feet thick. Seven gates (four original, three added later, the most recent being New Gate in 1865). The original cannon still stand on some of the bastions, though most are 18th-century replacements of the originals.
The walk
45–60 minutes to walk the full circuit, longer if you read the interpretation panels (you should). I start at Magazine Gate by the Guildhall and walk clockwise. The route takes in:
- Roaring Meg — an 18-pounder cannon from the 1689 Siege. The view from the bastion above the Bogside is the photograph people take.
- Royal Bastion — best views of the Foyle and the Peace Bridge.
- Bishop's Gate — the most ornate of the gates, rebuilt in 1789 as a triumphal arch (the rebuild was to mark the 100th anniversary of the Siege relief).
- St Columb's Cathedral — visible from the walls, the first Protestant cathedral built in the British Isles after the Reformation.
- Verbal Arts Centre — contemporary arts venue in restored historic buildings.
The 105-day Siege of 1688–89 is the historical event the walls are mostly known for. The short version: Catholic Jacobite forces under James II surrounded the city, the Protestant inhabitants held out under truly grim conditions (starvation, cannibalism allegations contemporaneously made, though contested by historians), the siege was lifted in July 1689 when Williamite supply ships broke the boom across the Foyle. The events still matter for the way Northern Ireland sees itself. The interpretation panels handle this reasonably even-handedly now, which wasn't always the case.
The Guildhall
The neo-Gothic building with the clock tower at the eastern end of the walled city, just by the Peace Bridge. Built 1890, damaged by fires in 1908 and 1972 (the 1972 incident was bombs, two of them, in the Troubles), restored in stages, most recently in 2013.
The interior is the reason to go inside. The stained glass in the main hall is among the finest in Ireland — depicting scenes from the city's history, from Columba's monastery through the Plantation, the Siege, the Victorian industrial era, and into modern times. The Peace Window in the entrance hall was added in 2018 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Free guided tours run on a schedule (check on the day) or explore independently. Concerts, exhibitions and events through the year.
Where: Guildhall Square, just outside the walls by Magazine Gate. Free admission. Allow 30–45 minutes for a self-guided look, 60–90 for the guided tour.
St Columb's Cathedral
Built between 1628 and 1633 inside the walls and named for St Columba (Colm Cille), who founded the original monastery on the hill in 546. It's the first Protestant cathedral built in the British Isles after the Reformation — that's a real claim of priority, contested only by some who'd date the founding of Worcester Cathedral as a separate structure (which I don't think holds, but the historian's vice requires me to mention).
The cathedral was inside the besieged city in 1688–89, and the locks and keys from when the gates were shut against King James are still in the chapter house, along with cannonballs that lodged in the walls and a remarkable collection of siege-period documents and maps.
Inside is dark wood, historic memorials, and stained glass, the atmosphere is one of contemplation rather than spectacle. Climb the tower (small extra fee, narrow stairs) for the city view. The chapter house museum is well worth the time.
The Tower Museum
Two permanent exhibitions: "Story of Derry" and "An Armada Shipwreck". I worked here for a few years and I'm therefore biased, but it's a properly good museum.
"Story of Derry" walks the city's history from Columba through the Plantation, the Siege, the Victorian era, the Troubles, and the peace process. It uses multimedia well, it handles difficult subjects honestly (Bloody Sunday, the H-Blocks) without sensationalising them or papering over them. There aren't many places in either part of Ireland that do this work as carefully as the Tower does.
"An Armada Shipwreck" is the recovered artefacts and the story of La Trinidad Valencera, a Spanish Armada ship that sank off the Donegal coast in 1588 with most of her crew. The salvage in the 1970s and 80s recovered a lot of material, the Tower display walks through it carefully. Genuinely fascinating, even if you didn't think the Armada was your thing.
Where: Union Hall Place, inside the walls near Shipquay Gate. Admission fee, concessions available. Generally open 10am–5pm, check current hours. Audio guides included. Allow 90 minutes minimum.
The Bogside murals and the Museum of Free Derry
The Bogside is the neighbourhood just outside the western walls. It was the centre of the civil rights movement here in the late 1960s, and the site of Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972, when British paratroopers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a civil rights march, 14 died). The area's murals, painted on gable walls between 1994 and 2008, have become some of the most-recognised images of the Troubles globally.
The People's Gallery
Twelve murals painted by the Bogside Artists (Tom Kelly, William Kelly and Kevin Hasson — brothers and a brother-in-law), covering the civil rights era, Bloody Sunday, and the wider Troubles:
- The Bloody Sunday Memorial — the most photographed, shows Ivan Cooper, the civil rights leader.
- The Death of Innocence — for the young people killed during the conflict.
- Civil Rights — the 1968 march from which the modern civil-rights phase is generally dated.
- Petrol Bomber — a gas-masked youth with a petrol bomb during the Battle of the Bogside (August 1969).
- The Saturday Matinee — children at play in the conflict period.
You can walk the murals independently — there's free interpretation at each — but I'd genuinely recommend a guided tour. Local guides bring context and personal connection you can't otherwise get, the murals make sense as a connected sequence once you've had them explained. Free Derry Tours is the operator I'd send people to.
Museum of Free Derry
A small but extraordinarily good museum on Bloody Sunday and the civil-rights era. Run by relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims and civil rights activists — the personal connection to the events is one of the reasons it works. Artefacts, photographs, video testimony.
It's at the original site of Free Derry Corner, where the famous "You Are Now Entering Free Derry" gable wall still stands (now a freestanding monument). The events documented here are not easy — but they are essential to understanding modern Derry and to understanding what the peace process actually accomplished.
Where: 55 Glenfada Park, Bogside. Admission fee. Allow 60–90 minutes. Combined tickets with the mural tours.
The Peace Bridge and Ebrington Square
The Peace Bridge opened in 2011 — an S-curved pedestrian and cycle bridge across the Foyle connecting the walled city to the Waterside. It's a properly elegant piece of engineering (designed by AECOM and Wilkinson Eyre, if anyone's asking), and walking it at sunset is one of the things visitors mention afterwards. The view back to the walls, the Guildhall and the cathedral on the western bank is the photograph people take.
The bridge connects what for most of my life were two separate experiences of the city — the walled city and the Bogside on one side, the Waterside (largely Protestant) on the other. Crossing easily between them on foot is the bit that matters more than the architecture.
Ebrington Square
The former British Army barracks (vacated in 2003) has been redeveloped as a large public square and cultural quarter. Concerts, festivals, markets, and the major Halloween and Foyle Maritime Festival stages happen here. The Walled City Brewery opened on the site in 2015 — proper craft beer brewed on the premises, with the Foyle view. Their Boom Boom pale ale and St Columb's Cream Ale are the ones I'd start with.
From barracks to public space is the kind of redevelopment that doesn't happen everywhere, and Ebrington has been done thoughtfully. Information panels round the site cover its military history without sanitising it.
Where to eat
Derry's food scene has shifted noticeably in the last decade. A short list of where to go.
Restaurants
Pyke 'N' Pommes — Shipquay Street, inside the walls. Creative Irish/French cooking using Donegal and Derry ingredients. The lamb is the order. Book ahead.
Cedar — Strand Road. Lebanese. The mezze is generous and there for sharing.
Primrose — Carlisle Road. Upscale, seasonal tasting menus. Chef Tomas Kearney trained in Michelin kitchens before coming home.
Browns Bonds Hill — modern bistro in a Georgian building. Sunday roasts, courtyard for summer.
The Sooty Olive — Waterside, Spencer Road. Foyle views, the Donegal catch of the day.
Cafés and quick
The Sandwich Company — Waterloo Street. The name is deceiving — these are the best sandwiches in town. Always busy with locals.
Fitzroy's — Magazine Street, inside the walls. Coffee, breakfast, baking. The artists' and writers' café.
Mandarin Palace — Clarendon Street. The Derry Chinese community goes back generations, this restaurant has been here over 30 years and does proper Cantonese food.
Pubs and nights out
The student population at Ulster University's Magee campus keeps the nightlife livelier than the city size suggests.
Trad pubs
Peadar O'Donnell's — Waterloo Street. The trad music pub. Sessions almost nightly. Gets packed, arrive early.
The Gweedore Bar — next door, same family. Upstairs has live music, the Gaelic atmosphere, everyone welcome.
Sandino's — Water Street. Named for the Nicaraguan revolutionary. Politically engaged, murals on the walls, excellent Guinness, live music at weekends.
Modern bars
Walled City Brewery — Ebrington Square. Craft beer on-site, river view.
Badgers Bar & Townhouse — Orchard Street. Cocktails and gin in a boutique-hotel setting.
The Bentley Bar — John Street. Live music venue, weekend crowds.
One thing to know about Halloween: Derry's Halloween festival is genuinely one of the biggest in Europe — a multi-day affair with street theatre, parades, fireworks over the Foyle, and the city more or less in costume for a week. The University of Ulster's social impact study claims attendance of over 100,000 in some years. Book accommodation months ahead if you're coming for Halloween week.
Shopping
The main shopping streets inside the walls are Shipquay Street, Ferryquay Street, and The Diamond (the central square). The chains share space with independent shops worth seeking out.
- The Donegal Shop (The Diamond) — Irish crafts, Donegal tweed, Aran sweaters, pottery, jewellery. The staff actually know the stock.
- Bookworm (Bishop Street) — independent bookshop with a properly good Irish history and literature section.
- Derry Craft Village (Shipquay Street) — workshops and shops round a courtyard. You can watch the weavers, jewellers and ceramicists at work. Small café in the middle.
- Cool Discs (Foyle Street) — records, CDs, music memorabilia. Derry's musical heritage (The Undertones, Nadine Coyle, more recently the choir-led ensembles around the Walled City Music Festival) is celebrated here.
The monthly Walled City Market (first Saturday) brings food producers, craftspeople and vintage sellers to Guildhall Square and Magazine Street. If your timing aligns, go.
Getting here, staying, when to come
Getting to Derry
Air: City of Derry Airport (7 miles, limited service, mostly UK destinations). Belfast International (60 miles) and Belfast City (70 miles) have wider connections.
Car: 75 miles from Belfast on the A6/M22, around 90 minutes. 45 miles from Donegal Town on the N15/A38, an hour. Parking at Foyleside Shopping Centre (paid), free parking with validation at Ebrington Square and Sainsbury's.
Bus: Translink Goldline service 212 from Belfast, about 90 minutes. Bus Éireann from Galway, Sligo and Dublin.
Train: Belfast to Derry takes around 2 hours 15. The train terminates at Waterside Station on the eastern bank, a free Rail Link bus brings you across the bridge into the city centre.
Where to stay
Inside the walls: Bishop's Gate Hotel (boutique), City Hotel (mid-range), Maldron Hotel (chain).
Near the walls: Everglades Hotel (business hotel with leisure facilities), Tower Hotel (budget end), Da Vinci's Hotel (stylish, with a decent restaurant).
Budget: Derry City Independent Hostel (Magazine Street, the good one), Paddy's Palace Hostel (sociable).
See the County Londonderry accommodation guide for the wider list, including B&Bs and rural options.
When to come
Summer (June–August): longest days, warmest, the festivals run. Busiest.
Shoulder (April–May, September–October): the best balance. Halloween week (late October) is spectacularly busy — book everything months ahead.
Winter (November–March): quieter and colder. The Christmas market gives the city a festive feel in December.
Day trips
Derry is a properly good base for the north-west.
Grianán of Aileach
Stone ringfort on a hill 800 feet above Lough Swilly, with a 360° view across three counties. The current structure dates to around the 7th–9th century AD, the hilltop site itself was used in some form from the Iron Age (claims of Bronze Age use, c.1700 BC, exist, the dating is contested in the secondary literature). It was the royal seat of the kingdom of Aileach in the early medieval period.
The 1870s restoration is heavy — what you see is partly reconstruction, which the interpretive signage handles honestly. Still one of the most complete ancient sites in Ireland.
Distance: 15 miles south, in County Donegal. 25 minutes by car. Free access, always open. Allow 45–60 minutes.
The Inishowen Peninsula
The northernmost peninsula in Ireland. About a 100-mile loop for the full circuit.
- Malin Head — Ireland's most northerly point. WWII lookout tower, Star Wars filming location for The Last Jedi.
- Doagh Famine Village — living-history museum on 19th-century rural life. The interpretation is honest about the famine period in a way that not every Irish heritage site is.
- Fort Dunree — 19th-century coastal defence fort with a small but properly good military museum and a café.
- Inch Island — tidal causeway, birdwatching, quiet beaches.
A full day for the loop. Limited services in places — pack lunch or plan stops. The peninsula is in the Republic of Ireland, check your car hire's cross-border insurance.
The Causeway Coast, from Derry
Derry is the alternative base for the Causeway Coast — Giant's Causeway is 45 miles east, an hour's drive. Approached from the west, the headline attractions are usually quieter than they are from the eastern (Belfast) side. Combine with Dunluce Castle and Bushmills.
See the travel guides for the wider Causeway trip.
One closing thought
Derry's history is not light reading. The Siege, the Plantation, Bloody Sunday — these are events that still shape how the city understands itself. The honest thing to say about visiting is that you'll get a more rewarding trip if you arrive prepared to engage with that history rather than around it. The Tower Museum and the Museum of Free Derry both do the hard work, the walls and the murals make sense as a connected story once you've spent half a day with the museums.
And then go to a session at Peadar's, and have an oyster at Pyke 'N' Pommes, and walk the walls again at sunset. The city is more than its difficult history, but it isn't less than it, either.