May 27 - Derry and Inishowen Peninsula

This morning we are going on a tour of the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal.  This is in Ireland not Northern Ireland but since Derry is right on the border, we are in County Donegal in 5 minutes.  The Inishowen Peninsula is the largest and most northern in Ireland and it is very rugged. and contains the most northern point in Ireland, Malin Head.

Our first stop on the peninsula is Grianan Aileach which is the ancient ring fort that was the royal seat of the Kingdom of Aileach.  Here is a photo of that fort as we approach it.

Aileach was ruled by the Uí Néill (O Neill) clan which was the clan that controlled most of northern Ireland before the Normans arrived and was probably the most powerful clan in Ireland.  The clan leaders were descendants of  Niall Noigiallach, also know as Niall of the Nine Hostages, who died in 405 AD.  Multiple members of this clan ruled as High King of Ireland over the years before the Normans conquered Ireland.  This fort was built in about 6th or 7th century but the site goes back to neolithic times and is believed to have been use as early as 3,000 BC,  Here is an inside view of the fort from ground level.

The fort sits on a hill 800 feet high, it is 78 feet in diameter on the inside, the walls are 15 feet thick and 16 feet high.  I climbed the stairs to get a better view.  Here is a photo I took.

It was really cold and the wind was blowing hard so we were all freezing out butts off.  Pat is in the center of the photo in a light colored rain coat with her hood up and her hands in her pockets trying to keep warm.  This fort is strategically located at the entrance to the peninsula which is bounded on the

western side by Lough Swilly and on the eastern side by Lough Foyle.  In these photos you can see two branches of Lough Swilly with the island of Inch between them.

Inside the walls of the fort there are passages but they were closed off and you would have to be pretty small and agile to make your way through them.  Here is a photo of the entrance to those passages.

We then started our trip north up the peninsula.  We passed this small church with this bell which was supposedly recovered from the wreck of the Spanish Armada off the coast in 1588.

We reached Malin Head and you can get an idea of how desolate and wild this country is in the next few photos.

There are farmers living here raising sheep.

This tower was built by the British in 1805 during the Napoleonic wars.  It was later used as a Marconi radio site and the Titanic used it to test their radios as it headed out on it fateful voyage.

Some of the very rugged off shore islands.

We then headed back to Derry and drove through the Catholic side of town.  This is where the first incidents of the Troubles happened and there are a number of murals about the Troubles as in these photos.

The Catholics in Derry refer to their area of town as Free Derry.

This mural is a memorial to a young school girl who was killed by British troops in what became know as Bloody Sunday.

Derry is a walled city and still has its medieval walls and gates.  We have just entered this gate on the northern edge of the old city.

This church, in the old part of Derry, is St. Eugene's Cathedral.  Ever since Henry VIII, Catholic churches had not been allowed.  When the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 was passed, Catholics were legally allowed to build churches and this cathedral was built in the 1840s.

This building is the First Derry Presbyterian Church.  This building was erected in 1780.  The British were Anglican and the native Irish were Roman Catholic but the Scots that the British brought in to work the lands that the British confiscated from the Irish were Presbyterian and this was their church.

Here we are walking the city walls.

We went about half way down the walls and then crossed the city to come out at the gate next to the Guild Hall.  Here is that gate.

Here is the outside of the walls facing the river.  At the time these walls were built the river flowed next to them and the cannon on the walls were used to defend the city against ships in the river.

Here is the side of the Guild Hall facing the city walls.

And here is the side facing the river.

The Guild Hall was built in 1890 and was accidentally burned down and rebuilt in the early 20th century and then was damaged in the 1970s by IRA bombs.  Now it is fully restored and has a museum on the first floor and the city council meeting room and ballroom on the second floor.  Here is the organ in the ballroom.

Some of the stained glass windows in the ballroom.

The museum had an exhibit about the Ulster Plantation that the British tried to establish in this area. This was an attempt under King James I of England in 1609  to force the Irish out of the area and repopulate it with Protestant British and Scot settlers.  The requirement was that all colonists living on the plantation had to be Protestants so the Irish either had to convert or leave.  For the most part it was a failure as the Irish for the most part never left the area or converted.

Tomorrow we leave Derry and head to Galway with some stops along the way.