If you arrive in Derry by train, congratulations. You’ve already made one of the best travel decisions available to a human being. The railway line from Coleraine to Derry twists and clings to the northern coastline like it knows it’s onto a good thing. You get beaches, cliffs, estuaries and the odd flock of sheep, all culminating in a slow and dramatic roll into the city itself, hugged by hills and split by the River Foyle.
It is, to put it simply, a lovely place to arrive.
Walled in but far from shut off
Derry’s old city walls are still very much intact and you can walk all the way around them without once bumping into a turnstile or a queue of people holding up phones and pretending they’re not taking selfies. The walls themselves are thick, solid things, clearly designed with serious business in mind, but today they function more as a very scenic promenade with views of the modern city below and the hills beyond.
Inside the walls, the centre is compact, easy to explore on foot and surprisingly full of nice things. Streets curve in pleasant, old-fashioned ways. There are independent bookshops and bakeries and pubs that look like they’ve always been there because they more or less have. One of them is Peadar O’Donnell’s, which has the feel of a place you might pop into for five minutes and leave five hours later having made friends, drunk a Guinness and possibly joined in with a folk band. No promises.
More history than you can shake a museum leaflet at
This is a city where history isn’t a dusty subject so much as something that continues to tap you on the shoulder. You can see it in the Tower Museum, which explains the city’s past in a way that even people who normally avoid museums might find engaging. There are tales of sieges, settlements, civil rights and shipwrecks. It’s like several history books have been tipped into one building and made user-friendly.
A walk across the Peace Bridge is both literal and symbolic. The design is sleek and modern, its purpose heartfelt. It spans the River Foyle, linking the two sides of a city that once seemed painfully divided. There is something quite lovely about seeing children on scooters and couples with coffee cups making their way across a structure with such a hopeful name.
The murals are not just art they are conversation starters
In the Bogside, a short stroll from the old city, the famous murals make for a striking outdoor gallery. They depict moments of protest and pain and pride with a clarity that no plaque or paragraph could ever quite match. It’s impossible to walk past them without thinking. Some will make you pause. Others will have you reaching for your phone to look something up because you realise you probably don’t know enough about this place and its past.
If that sounds heavy, it is and it isn’t. Because Derry does what few places manage. It faces its own story with clear eyes but still finds time for humour and warmth. People say hello. Strangers talk to each other at bus stops. Someone will recommend a cafe or a shortcut or the best place to get chips.
A night out that’s more fun than it has any right to be
After dark, Derry somehow manages to up its game. There are pubs with live music and no cover charge. Restaurants with local menus that go well beyond the usual suspects. Try Browns in Town for something a little swanky or Pyke ‘n’ Pommes if you want to eat something brilliant out of a shipping container, or a bus, and feel very pleased with yourself.
If you fancy a slightly unexpected activity, you can also book a guided ghost walk. These usually involve stories that are mostly true, guides who are mostly entertaining and lanes that are definitely dark. You may or may not be terrified, but you will almost certainly be amused.
Sunday mornings are for walking and wondering
Assuming you didn’t overdo it the night before, Sunday is an excellent day to stretch your legs along the city walls or amble beside the river. There’s a sense of calm to the city in the early hours, as if it is enjoying a slow coffee and easing into the day. If you time it right, you might find a flea market or a food stall or a street musician giving it their all outside the Guildhall.
And speaking of the Guildhall, do go inside. The stained glass is enough to make you forget how often you normally ignore stained glass. The building is part town hall, part history lesson and part concert venue. You’re never quite sure what you’ll find in there but it’s almost always worth the effort.
You leave with more than you arrived with
Leaving Derry, especially by train again, feels less like going home and more like finishing a book you hadn’t expected to enjoy quite so much. You pack your bag and head to the station and somewhere along the way you realise the city got to you.
It might have been a conversation in a pub. Or a mural that made you think. Or the way the hills looked at sunset. Whatever it was, Derry~Londonderry if you’re being formal, has managed to do something quietly remarkable.
It has given you a weekend that will almost certainly linger longer than you expected. And if that’s not the sign of a good place, it’s hard to know what is.
