Wednesday 1st June

Today we visited Londonderry, in particular to see the Tower Museum and the City Walls. In the centre, I was taken aback by the Guildhall which is a beautiful building, although we didn't have time to go inside.  Also, I was slightly disturbed that there is a Barber's called Sweeny Todd's next to the Tower Museum......!

The museum itself is about the history of Derry, starting with the prehistoric era and making its way to the present day. It is a bit of an intense experience I have to say, but that was to be expected.  A very well told history of the city and an enjoyable walk from the top of the tower with views of the city down through another exhibition about the Spanish Armada and the discovery of one of its ships, La Trinidad Valencera, which sank off the coast of Co. Donegal in 1558 and excavated 400 years later.

After this, we walked onto the City Walls via 'The Craft Village' which is like a little arcade set out like a small village complete with balconies and overhead mini foot bridges, lots of little units of individual independent craft shops selling locally handmade things. Yes, I bought a few things for myself here and a few souvenirs!

The City Walls didn't take long to walk around, as the city centre itself isn't that big, however they are the widest city walls which I have ever walked on. Then it dawned on me that it's because I'm so used to walking on Medieval city walls - these were built much later in the 16th Century.  It's a very nice walk to do, very pleasent, and you can see the extra metal railings which were put up opposite Bogside, and also from here you can see some of the murals there.  There are murals in a number of places in and around the city but the Bogside murals are the most well known.

After our visit to Londonderry we moved on to Downhill Demesne where we stopped to have a late lunch first before exploring the area.  It was a coastal walk which took us past a Dovecote, a Temple, through a small glen which was very nice, and on to a memorial before we explored the eccentric house which looks like a stately house from the front and a castle at the back.  The eccentric owner was known to switch architects at the drop of a hat and grow bored with projects quickly. There was no explanation about why the back ot the building was made to look like a castle, so perhaps nobody knows why...!

Finally, we went on to Binevenagh - an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which we had seen from a distance and I had said to Mathew that I wouldn't mind standing on the top of that if there was a way.  At first we weren't sure and we thought at it was too far to be worth it on foot, especially as we were coming to the end of the day despite it still being quite light quite late on in the day at the moment.  However, as we made our way through the area, Mathew had a look on his iPhone and he saw a road which didn't look too far from it.  So we set off and found it, although it was very gravelly and bumpy!  There was a view point and a small loch for fishing, and the edge of the ridge of Binevenagh wasn't far, so we walked along the ridge for a while. The landscape was so flat around us as we could see the Magilligan Point and Loch Foyle before us. A very enjoyable evening indeed.  And yes, we later discovered that the area had been used for - you guessed it - Game of Thrones!