Derry Walls Tour?

I just wanted to bump this topic because I need the same info for May 2025. Have one night in Derry and looking for wall tour recs. Thanks.

I re posted this in trip advisor -- the Ireland forums there seem to be more active. that said, derrycity tours was recommended and was very responsive to my email questions. I won't be able to use them because they aren't running tours the dates we are there in December but I think they're readily available at other times of the year.

I think I may do audio tour I found online called derrie danders? it's not exactly ideal but it's low risk from a cost perspective. I'm not clear on where we will park, etc - our derry day will probably be only a two-three hour pass through en route.

I'm torn about trying to hit both grainan alleach and derry....if we get out early it might be possible.

mcm, that seems doable to me (hitting both) depending on what time you want to be in Donegal. Your drive from Coleraine to Donegal is 1:45 according to Google. I haven't been to Grianan of Aileach so I'm unsure of the time commitment there. Thanks for the Derry info. I'll pop over to TA.

There have been several questions recently about the Derry/Londonderry walls (and the Antrim coast). It is interesting how few responses there have been. It seems that most people on this forum only go to Northern Ireland for Belfast.

There is at least one other company for Derry tours- https://www.derrycitytours.com/

There is also a good information leaflet here- https://thederrywalls.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/derry-walls-pdf.pdf

MSH -

We are traveling with little daylight and have a hard deadline for 4:30 arrival at harvey point (outside donegal town). This will all likely come down to how quickly we will hit the road in the morning (teens in our group who sometimes don't move well early) and the weather. I imagine tinkering through derry better in the rain. We also have to grocery shop (or pick up click and collect enroute) for our next two self catering nights. All this being said, I'd really like to do both....fingers crossed

I actually have us double booked the night before (Coleraine and Belfast) and need to cancel one. Coleraine will minimize back tracking after a day at the giant' causeway and Dunluce, but I'd rather spend night in Belfast. Again, limited daylight impacting the plan - hoping to for a pub dinner/music experience no matter where we stay....

I would agree - most of the board information focuses on Belfast and the Giant's Causeway - the Antrim coast coast does seem to take a back seat to Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry.

I just want to say that we thoroughly enjoyed/appreciated the Martin McCrossan City Walking Tour (Derry walls) which is so interesting. In 2019 when we took the tour, Mr. McCrossan himself had recently passed away, and his daughter was very successfully running the program. And I think the older teens would especially like it. If they are familiar with the tv show Derry Girls they will really like it; though the tour is historical, and walking along the walls is so interesting and not based/focused on the tv program. (There's a separate Derry Girls tour if interested.)

Personally, I enjoyed it more than the black cab tours. Our guide was very knowledgeable; had himself been injured during the troubles, had a lot of solid info (quite depressing and sad); but when he started talking about if we'd ever watched/heard of The Beverly Hillbillies (which clearly he hadn't) he said the entire show's premise was based on the hillbillies of Ulster. Now I understand the term seems to have originated in Northern Ireland, but otherwise...

Thank you for sharing this information...I may have to do a deep dive on the Hillbilly/Ulster connection. It was a summer re-run staple when I was young....I think it was on at like 10am everyday.

Given our off time of year visit I think we will be on our own in terms of tour availability in Derry. Striking out.

I've done a few podcast based tours in the past that have passed muster and I suspect we will have to go that route....

If anyone lurking has suggestions for where to easily leave a car for the walls I would appreciate the tip. We will also have to carve out a stop at the Derry Girls mural as it's a hit with my children (and me for that matter).

I'd never made the association between hillbillies and Northern Ireland either. Makes sense when you consider who settled Appalachia. Interesting!

Wikipedia would seem to support that theory (with the usual caveat about the reliability of Wikipedia)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly

with the potential of the term ultimately having Scottish Covenanter Roots, intermingled with Willian of Orange (King Billy) but then also the Siege of Derry and the Battle of the Boyne, and the Jacobites- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England

But note that the term did not come into written use until 1898. Tobacco in Kentucky is interesting as where I am from in Cumbria our (very large in it's time) tobacco trade was with Virginia (before that trade moved to Glasgow, allied with the American War of Independence).

The Virginian tobacco trade has no relevance to you. I am just musing.

We did a Vagabond tour in the Irelands where most of the activities were optional, but it really annoyed our guide when we didn't participate in the Derry Wall tour and instead used the RS guidebook. He even told us his co-workers make up stuff and submit it to RS just to mess them up;) To participate we needed to pay in cash, and we really didn't feel the need to use an ATM for just that. Along the way we stopped at a church where the volunteer inside told us how the roof had been rebuilt with white pine from Minnesota where we live. We felt we did well on our own. Grianan of Aileach is unique and worth a stop, imo.

How much time at Grainan Alleach? It seems only slightly out of our way and I like mixing things up a bit...some recent history, some ancient history, some culture and some views (weather permitting).

Thank you for the ulster/hillbilly links -- will send my children down a rabbit hole in advance -- will be good to have some extra context and background information!

We stayed 2 nights at Bishop's Gate BNB last May and there was free parking on the street and easy to get in and out. The address is 150 Bishop Street, Londonderry BT48 6UJ. We walked about 3 blocks from there to the Derry walls. We also saw several car parks that were available in town. We took a Derry Walls walking tour and found it very interesting. We also spent time in Belfast and found the history of each town quite different.

Our group brought bag lunches to eat at Grainan of Alleach, so we were probably there 45 minutes. A half hour would be plenty.

mnannie and iken - thanks so much. this information is helpful!