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Activity: Maritime Heritage

Iron Age hill fort

Iron Age hill fort

The port of Londonderry lies (in the words of the song) “On the Banks of the Foyle”. From here trade has been carried on for at least four hundred years. Carlingford Lough was an important centre for trade through the centuries, stretching back to Viking times.

The sea areas of Carlingford Lough and the Foyle, along with their catchments inland, are laden with heritage.

For the casual tourist and the serious archaeologist and historian, there is a rich heritage of ancient and not so ancient monuments - prehistoric stone formations and earth works, Norman castles, medieval abbeys, the walled city of Derry, the walled town of Carlingford and Victorian seaside resorts such as Warrenpoint, Rostrevor, Moville and Omeath.

The port of Londonderry lies (in the words of the song) “On the Banks of the Foyle”. From here trade has been carried on for at least four hundred years, ever since the London companies established the city that they named by blending the name of their home – London – with the Irish place name – Doire, anglicised to Derry – a  name derived from the oak woods that grew here in ancient times. Records exist of medieval trading from Strabane, many miles upstream, sea going vessels at that time being of shallower draft than today and the river deeper, not yet silted to the extent that it is now!

Carlingford Lough was an important centre for trade through the centuries, stretching back to Viking times, a people much in awe as fighting raiders but, in actual fact, great traders and navigators! The later influence of the Normans is starkly evident yet, symmetrical towers still standing proud by the shore at Narrow Water, Carlingford town and Greencastle.

 

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