Squatting determinedly in the city center, the old city walls of Derry (built 1613-1618 and still intact, except for wider gates to handle modern vehicles) hold an almost mythic place in Irish History.
It was here in 1688 that a group of brace apprentice boys, some of whom had been shipped to Derry as orphans after the great fire of London in 1666, made their stand. They slammed the city gates in the face of the approaching Catholic forces of deposed King James II. With this act, the boys galvanized the city’s indecisive Protestant defenders inside the walls.
Months of negotiations and a grinding 105-day siege followed, during which a third of the 20,000 refugees and defenders crammed into the city perished. The siege was finally broken in 1689, when supply ships broke though a boom stretched across the River Foyle. The sacrifice and defiant survival of the city turned the tide in favor of newly crowned Protestant King William of Orange, who arrived in Ireland soon after and defeated James at the pivotal Battle of the Boyne.
To fully appreciate the walls, you have to walk on top of them. Almost 20 feet high and at least as thick, the walls form a mile-long oval loop. The most interesting section is the half-circuit facing the Bogside, starting at Magazine Gate and finishing at Bishop’s Gate.
First Derry Presbyterian Church – This impressive-looking building is the second church to occupy this site. The first was built by Queen Mary in the 1690s to thank the Presbyterian community for standing by their Anglican brethren during the dark days of the famous siege. That church was later torn down to make room for today’s stately Neoclassical, red-sandstone church finished in 1780. Over the next 200 years, time took its toll on the structure, which was eventually closed due to dry rot and Republican firebombings.
But in 2011, the renovated church reopened to a chorus of cross-community approval.
Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall – Built in 1873, this houses the private lodge and meeting rooms of an all-male Protestant organization. The group is dedicated to the memory of the original 13 apprentice boys who saved the day during the 1688 siege. Each year, on the Saturday closest to the August 12 anniversary date, the modern-day Apprentice Boys Society celebrates the end of the siege with a controversial march atop the walls. These walls are considered sacred ground for devout Unionists, whoc claim that many who died during the famous siege were buried within the battered walls because of lack of space.
Next, we pass a large, square pedestal on the right atop Royal Bastion. It once supported a column in honor of Governor George Walker, the commander of the defenders during the siege. In 1972, the IRA blew up the column, which had 105 steps to the top (one for each day of the siege).
An adjacent plaque shows a photo of the column before it was destroyed.
St. Augustine Chapel – Set in a pretty graveyard, this Anglican chapel is where some believe the original sixth-century monastery of St. Columba stood. In Victorian times, this stretch of the walls was a fashionable promenade walk.
This long wall is all that’s left of a former British Army base, which stood here until 2006. Two 50-foot towers used to loom out of it, bristling with cameras and listening devices. Soldiers built them here for a bird’s-eye view of the once-turbulent Catholic Bogside district below. The towers’ dismantlement – as well as the removal of most of the British Army from Northern Ireland – is another positive sign in cautiously optimistic Derry.
The Double Bastion fortified platform that occupies this corner of the city walls holds an old cannon nicknamed “Roaring Meg” for the fury of its firing during the siege.
From here, we can see across the Bogside to the not-so-far-away hills of County Donegal in the Republic. Derry was once an island, but as the River Foyle gradually changed its course, the area we see below the wall began to drain. Over time, and especially after the Great Potato Famine, Catholic peasants from rural Donegal began to move into Derry to find work during the Industrial Revolution. They settled on this least desirable land… on the soggy bog side of the city. From this vantage point, survey the Bogside with its political murals and Palestinian flags.
Directly below and to the right are Free Derry Corner and Rossville Street, where the tragic events of Bloody Sunday took place.
Bishop’s Gate – Look up Bishop Street within (inside the walls). This was the site of another British Army surveillance tower. Placed just inside the town walls, it overlooked the neighborhood until 2006.
Now look in the other direction to see Bishop Street Without (outside the walls). You’ll sot a modern wall topped by a high mesh fence, running along the left side of Bishop Street without.
This is a so-called “peace wall” built to ensure the security of the Protestant enclave living behind it in Derry’s Fountain neighborhood. When the Troubles reignited over 50 years ago, 20,000 Protestants lived on this side of the river. This small housing development of 1,000 people is all that remains of that proud community today. The rest have chosen to move across the river to the mostly Protestant Waterside district. The stone tower hallway down the peace wall is all that remains of the old jail that briefly held doomed rebels after a 1798 revolt against the British.