GlampFinder
Northern Ireland

Things to Do in Derry / Londonderry

The only completely walled city in Ireland, and the walls take under an hour to circuit. Derry is a half-day city with a serious history and an underrated position: Donegal on one side, the Causeway Coast on the other.

Published 18 August 2026

Derry sits at the western end of the Causeway Coastal Route, which is the best reason to give it a night rather than a lunch stop. The city is small, the central attraction is free, and the surrounding coast, Benone, Magilligan, Binevenagh, is among the least crowded in Northern Ireland.

The walls

Built between 1613 and 1618 and never breached, the walls are the reason to come. They are around a mile in circumference, completely intact, and walkable as a circuit in under an hour, which makes them the best short walk in any Irish city. You look down into the Bogside from the western stretch, which is the point at which the city’s modern history becomes unavoidable.

The Bogside and the Museum of Free Derry

The Bogside murals, the People’s Gallery, run along Rossville Street below the walls, and Free Derry Corner is the surviving gable wall. The Museum of Free Derry covers the civil rights movement, the Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday, largely through the accounts of the people who were there. It is a small museum and a heavy one; allow more time than its size suggests.

The Peace Bridge and the Waterside

The curving footbridge across the Foyle opened in 2011 and links the mainly unionist Waterside with the city side, a piece of infrastructure with an explicit civic purpose. It leads to Ebrington Square, the former military parade ground now used for events.

  • The Guildhall: neo-Gothic, stained glass, free to enter, with an exhibition on the Plantation of Ulster.
  • St Columb’s Cathedral: 1633, and the first cathedral built in these islands after the Reformation.
  • The Tower Museum: the city’s story plus a good Spanish Armada exhibition.

The coast on the doorstep

Half an hour east and you are at Benone Strand, seven miles of Blue Flag sand you can drive onto, with Binevenagh rising behind Magilligan Point. It is the quiet end of the north coast, and covered in the best beaches in Northern Ireland. Donegal and the Inishowen peninsula are a similar distance west across the border.

Where to stay

Glamping around Derry is sparser than on the Causeway Coast proper. We list 35 sites within twenty-five miles of the city, most of them east toward Limavady and Coleraine rather than in the city itself.

Glamping within reach of Derry

Within twenty-five miles of the city, best-rated first.

See all 35 sites (29 more not shown here).

Common questions

How long does it take to walk the Derry walls?
Under an hour for the full circuit, they are about a mile around and completely intact.
Is it called Derry or Londonderry?
Both are used, and which one people use often reflects community background. The city council is Derry City and Strabane District Council; the walls and much of the signage use Londonderry.
Is Derry worth visiting?
Yes, particularly as an overnight stop at the western end of the Causeway Coastal Route. The walls and the Museum of Free Derry are the essentials, and both can be done in a day.
What is there to do near Derry?
Benone Strand and Magilligan are half an hour east, the Causeway Coast an hour beyond that, and the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal is a similar distance west.

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