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History–Tours
168918 April – 28 July 1689 · Derry-Londonderry

Siege of Derry

A cannon on Derry's seventeenth-century city walls, looking out over the rooftops of the city
Photo: Simon Burchell. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In December 1688 thirteen apprentice boys shut Derry's gates against a regiment loyal to the Catholic James II. From April 1689 his army besieged the walled Protestant city for 105 days; thousands died of hunger and disease before the ship Mountjoy broke the boom across the Foyle and relief arrived. The Apprentice Boys still march each year, and the walls survive complete.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Derry's city wallsA complete 17th-century circuit with gates, bastions and siege cannon.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: St Columb's CathedralPlanter cathedral holding siege relics, including a mortar shell.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Siege Museum, Society StreetThe Apprentice Boys' museum of the siege and its commemoration.Map ↗

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