County Londonderry is one of the six historic counties of Ulster that in 1921 formed Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. These counties have been abolished as units of local government, and since 2015 Londonderry is administered in three districts: Derry and Strabane, Causeway Coast and Glens, and Mid-Ulster. Nevertheless it retains a distinct regional identity.
While the City of Londonderry is commonly called "Derry", this is less common for the county. While some people prefer to call it "County Derry" or Contae Dhoire, this article uses only "Londonderry" for the county. In 2011 the county population was 247,000.
Glaciers scoured out fjords such as Lough Foyle then melted and sea levels rose. The coastal lowlands became carpeted by oak forest, in Irish called doire, hence "derry". Stone Age people arrived soon after, and Mount Sandel in Coleraine had settled habitation in 7000 BC - that's Mesolithic, way before the stone monuments and villages of the Neolithic Age. At the other end of the spectrum, Grianan of Aileach (whick looks as old as the hills) was occupied as late as 1050 AD, until its owners finally succumbed after centuries of nagging, and re-housed their families in nice wattle-and-daub huts like their get-ahead neighbours.
Ireland's bays and rivers were essential for transport and for fishing. A monastery was founded on the River Foyle in the mid 6th century by St Colmcille, better known as St Columba. This was the beginning of Derry city, but it was repeatedly destroyed by the Vikings. By the 12th century the Vikings were ousted from Ireland, and the new powerful tribe were the Normans, who grabbed land in the southeast and divided Ireland into shires or counties, but never gained control of the northwest. It was only in the 16th century that Tudor England was able to assert its might. Yet still the Gaelic chiefs of Tyrconnell and Tyrone held out, until routed in the Nine Years War. In 1607 those chiefs fled to Europe: mission accomplished! But it wasn't.
The last Gaelic rebellion was in 1608 by Sir Cahir O'Doherty of Donegal, who destroyed Derry. English troops poured in, killed O'Doherty and most of his men, took reprisals, and hunted down the last few rebels holed up on Tory Island. Right, let's sort this place so it stays sorted. The novel solution was to outsource Derry to a London business consortium, "The Honourable The Irish Society". The Society rebuilt Derry with stout walls, carved up the territory between their twelve leading merchant companies (in order the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers, Saltners, Ironmongers, Vintners and Clothworkers), and populated it with loyal Protestant settlers mostly from Scotland. What had been County Coleraine became County-definitely-Londonderry-no-way-Derry, the eastern part of Ulster was similarly settled and industrialised, and the seeds of Irish partition were lain. Those city walls enabled Derry to withstand sieges in 1649 and in 1688, when the apprentice boys famously slammed the gates against the forces of catholic King James. Over the next 200 years, Protestant control was cemented in Belfast and the east, while to the west rural Donegal became de-populated - its Catholics found no welcome, housing or jobs here so they moved on to Glasgow and North America. Londonderry therefore became a pivot as the 19th / 20th century "Troubles" escalated into the Anglo-Irish conflict and Irish civil war. The 1921 Treaty partitioned Ireland, and specifically Ulster, with Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan joining the Republic, Londonderry joining the North, and a "hard border" suddenly appearing on Derry's city limits.
The border blighted trade and development on both sides. Economic grievances and sectarian tensions simmered especially in "interface areas" such as Derry / Londonderry; the border was always resented, but what propelled Ulster into the late 20th century "Troubles" was the new dynamic of civil rights. On "Bloody Sunday" on 30 Jan 1972, British troops opened fire on unarmed protesters in Derry, who were marching against mass imprisonment without trial. How could Britain govern its own backyard in this way?
This meant that in the 1970s, Beirut, Kabul, Teheran and Baghdad were agreeable places for westerners to visit, people even walked safely on the moon, while Derry and Belfast were off-limits, blighted, dangerous. Of course many still visited for business or family, but leisure travellers averted their eyes from the moral crater of Ulster. Not until 1998 was the conflict defused by the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement has been sorely tested but has largely ended violence, downgraded the border to a mere county line, and allowed Derry to re-launch itself as a tourist destination. The uncertainty in 2021 is because Brexit has created a new border with the European Union, and the long-term effects of this remain to be seen.
City of Derry Airport 📍 (IATA: LDY) is 7 miles northeast of Derry and has flights from the UK. You've more choice flying into one of the Belfast airports, and even more into Dublin.
Trains run hourly from Belfast via Newtownabbey, Antrim and Ballymena to Coleraine, Castlerock and Derry.
Buses run to Derry from Belfast, from Dublin city and airport, and from Galway via Sligo and Letterkenny the transport hub for County Donegal.
Car ferries sail from Cairnryan in Scotland to Belfast and to Larne, then an hour by road brings you into the county. By road from Dublin it's usually simplest to take M1 / A1 north to Belfast then M2 / A6 west.
In summer a car ferry plies across the outlet of Lough Foyle, between Macgilligans Point north of Derry and Greencastle in County Donegal.
Train is the best public transport between Derry, Castlerock and Coleraine, with hourly trains from Belfast.
Buses on that route only run 4 or 5 times a day: Ulsterbus 134 / 234 runs from Derry via Eglinton (for Derry airport), Ballykelly, Limavady and Castlerock to Coleraine.
Buses from Coleraine run a frequent triangle to Ulster University, Portstewart and Portrush.
You need a car to explore much of the county, or be a keen cyclist. A network of national cycleways crosses the county, though they're mostly on road.
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