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Local Area History |
The local area around Ard-Aulinn house can boast a very rich and interesting history stretching back millennia.
Ard-Aulinn is situated in the county of Derry/Londonderry. The nearby capital city of the county bearing the same name was referred to by Irish monks in the 5th. century as Doire Colm Cille or the orchard of Columba the man responsible for bringing Christianity to the Scottish tribes and setting up monastic centers in Scotland as well as his native Ireland. The county is a 17th century amalgamation of parts of the now lost county of Coleraine and parts of Donegal.
Doire or Derry means oak in Gaelic and this area was a revered site long before Christianity as the oak was the most sacred tree in the old Irish religion, thus Derry is named as the Oak Leaf County using the Oak leaf as its symbol. |
 Ard-Aulinn is situated just outside the tiny and picturesque village of Upperlands which was established in the early 1700s as a village which has grown around and depended upon the Clarks Linen Mill which was established in 1734.
The local workers houses of Boyne Row are now National Trust listed buildings. There is still a small Linen Museum in the village which has recorded its vibrant history as it exported the much sought after Irish Linen throughout the World.
The 17th. century Bawn at Bellaghy, a village situated just eight miles to the east is the best restored example to be found anywhere in Northern Ireland. Locally it is still referred to as "the castle" and it is located in Castle Street. Bellaghy Bawn was opened to the public in 1996 and features exhibitions on local natural history and Irish history, and on poetry with an exhibition to a local poet, Seamus Heaney who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995 and very kindly contributed to Bellaghy Bawn in the extensive collection of his manuscripts, books and all his broadcasts and television work. Even his old schoolbag is there from his days at Anahorish Primary School. 
In Maghera a small market town located just 3 miles from Ard Aulinn you can visit the portal dolmen, known locally as the Tirnoney Dolman It has a capstone supported by three of the six upright stones, two of which form the portal. It is believed to be a 4000-6000 year old megalithic burial tomb. |
 The town of Maghera is a site of religious significance from ancient times. The present day ruins of St. Lurach's Church date back to the 10th Century and it stands on the 6th Century monastery founded by St. Lurach, the patron saint of Maghera. Contained within the ruins is a sculpture of the crucifixion, which is thought to date from the 10th Century, making it one of the oldest in Ireland. The details of the sculpture can still be seen today. 
The city of Derry/Londonderry can boast some of the finest preserved city walls any where in Britain or Ireland. The still preserved walls are a testament to 17th.century settlement that would add a whole new dimension to the city and county.
The first settlement of the city was a monastic site over looking the river Foyle. St Columb's Well at the bottom of Fahan Street in the Bogside is one of three wells dating back to St. Columb's period of residence in Derry. The original site of St Columb's monastic church at Long Tower is close by.
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The Bogside is also an interesting place to visit. This area of the city became infamous during the 30 years of the Troubles as an IRA stronghold which the police could not enter Here you can view the political murals depicting recent history created by the famed Bogside artists. Murals can also be seen in the Waterside area which has a tradition of mural painting stretching back almost one hundred years.
 The 17th. century Church of Ireland St. Columb's in London Street was the first post-Reformation cathedral built in these islands. The Tower Museum in Union Hall Place tells the story of Derry, chronicling the history of the city from its geological formation through to the present day.
The county is one of the longest inhabited places on the whole island. At Coleraine a large oval mound dominates the Bann River beside the site of Ireland's oldest house, inhabited 9,000 years ago. A river side walk here is a must. |
The city of Derry was rebuilt in the eighteenth century with many of its fine Georgian style houses still surviving. George Berkeley, Ireland's most important philosopher, was Dean of Derry (1724-33), and another well-known and eccentric cleric, Frederick Augustus Hervey, the Earl of Bristol, was Bishop of Derry (1768-1803). It was Hervey, the so-called Earl Bishop, who was responsible for building the city's first bridge across the Foyle in 1790. The Foyle River at Derry now has two famous bridges one Victorian style but only completed in 1933 is two tiered and carries both car and rail passengers. The newer Foyle Bridge completed in 1984 serves both functional and leisure purposes as it is one of the most popular walks in the city with a majestic backdrop of outlying Donegal and Magilligan.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the port of Derry became an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants setting out for America. Some of these founded the colonies of Derry and Londonderry in the state of New Hampshire. In Harbour Square can be found the maritime museum with emphasis on the city's maritime and riverine connections. Displays also include miscellaneous artifacts which help stimulate a Victorian atmosphere. Temporary exhibitions are regularly displayed. The port in Derry played a vital part for the Allies in WWII during the war's longest running campaign, The Battle of the Atlantic and eventually saw the surrender of the German U-Boat fleet at Lisahally on May 8, 1945.
By the middle of the nineteenth century a thriving shirt and collar making industry had been established here, giving the city many of its fine industrial buildings. Four separate railway networks emanated from the city, the interesting history of which can be examined at the Foyle Valley Railway Centre and is always popular with children The museum celebrates the outstanding railway history of the city. The working diesel railcars run on a picturesque three-mile track through the nearby Riverside Park.
Three miles north of Derry is the Earhart Centre at Ballyarnet. The first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, Amelia Earhart, brought her plane down here in 1932.
Stretching form Donegal to Lough Neagh the Sperrin Mountains cross the heart of Ulster and is recognised as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. One of Ireland's largest upland areas, their gently rolling hills reach a maximum elevation of 678m at Mount Sawel, which overlooks the District of Magherafelt. The name Sperrin is thought to derive from "Na Speirn" meaning "spurs of rock" and it is rocks of the area that give the mountains their special character.
To the east and north-east are wide Lough Foyle, Magilligan Strand the longest beach in Ireland and the lovely Roe Valley Country Park. The shortest route to the Sperrins is up the pleasant valley of the river Faughan. The route passes Ness Wood, where the Burntollet river plunges 30 feet over Ulster's highest waterfall. Limavady is a fertile plain, reclaimed by dykes from Lough Foyle, with villages and small towns. Limavady was founded in Elizabethan times. It is one of Ulster's most characteristically Georgian towns. It was here that Jane Ross noted down the famous Londonderry Air ('Danny Boy') from a passing fiddler.
Eglinton (established by the Grocers' Company) still has an English air about it, with elegant church, former market house, trees around a green and two oaks which started life in Windsor Great Park. South of the village is Muff Glen with walks and bridges over its little rushing stream. Birdwatchers should see the glen and then walk along the top of the embankment of Lough Foyle where the mud flats at low tide are feeding grounds for seabirds and waders.
The shore sweeps out to Magilligan Point, where the shingle becomes pure sand, rounding the point and forming the famous six-mile Atlantic beach. A massive Martello tower stands at the point: and at the far eastern end of the strand, on a clifftop, is another circular edifice - the Mussenden Temple,a perfect replica of the Roman temple of Vesta. A few decades before the menace of Napoleon  brought Magilligan's Martello tower into existence, Frederick Augustus Hervey, built a palace on a windswept headland at Downhill. Today the palace is in ruins but his library, the Mussenden Temple, is still intact. Despite his extravagances, Hervey was a good bishop. The mountain road he built to Limavady gave work to the local people. The road runs across Binevenagh plateau, with splendid views of the Scottish coast and Donegal. Magnificent Benone Strand won the European Blue Flag award. Hundreds of yards wide at low tide with thundering Atlantic breakers, it is popular for shore fishing, particularly bass. Inland from Magilligan is the village of Ballykelly which was founded by the London Fishmongers' Company and old Walworth House retains three stocky towers and part of its defensive Bawn wall.
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| The Sampson Tower in Farlow Wood, one mile west of Limavady, is an intriguing Gothic-style memorial erected in 1860 to Arthur Sampson, agent for the Fishmongers' Company. But its great charm for the tourist is the Roe Valley Country Park. The river Roe winds through gorges where the rapids turned the waterwheels of several mills. The mills and a 19th-century hydro-electric plant have been restored, and the weaving shed houses a museum. |
 The Iron Age fort known as the Grianan of Aileach is seven miles north west of Derry, in County Donegal. For centuries the seat of the O'Neills, high kings of Ulster, it has panoramic views over Lough Swilly The glens of Antrim are a 45 min drive from Ard-Aulinn. This 20 square mile area is naturally unique for its unspoiled landscape which is made up of glacial valleys, sandy beaches, vertical cliffs, tundra plateau, wooded glens, waterfalls and picturesque villages. |
The Giants Causeway was formed some 62 to 65 million years ago during a long period of volcanic activity. Three major lava flows  occurred, referred to as the lower, middle and upper basaltic. The causeway columns occur in the middle layer. The mostly six-sided (but also four, five, seven and eight-sided) stones were created by the cooling and shrinking, along regular lines of force, of molten lava from a vast volcanic eruption that formed the Antrim plateau. When the lava flowed into the sea, it cooled quickly, crystallizing into the polygonal patterns. Because it is a superlative natural phenomenon representing a major stage of earths history, the Giants Causeway was inscribed on UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Local folklore offers another explanation for the causeways creation. One day, the Irish giant Finn MacCool was going about his business on the north coast when the Scottish giant Benandoner began taunting him from across the channel. Benandoner shouted that he would beat MacCool if he could get his hands on him. Then he added that MacCool would be spared that fate, since Benandoner couldnt swim across the channel. MacCool began tearing large chunks from the cliffs and pushing them into the ocean bed, building a sturdy causeway between Northern Ireland and Scotland. When he finished, he  shouted to Benandoner: Now you have no excuse. But MacCool was tired from constructing the causeway and he wanted to rest before facing Benandoner, so he came up with a plan to buy himself some time. He made a large crib, disguised himself as a baby, climbed inside and waited. When Benandoner arrived at MacCools house ready to fight, he found the crib with the baby inside it. My goodness, he thought. If this is the size of the baby, how big is the father? In fear of meeting the babys father, the Scottish giant turned around and ran back across the causeway, destroying it as he went. | | |
