Overview
Magherafelt is the administrative capital of Mid-Ulster, and for most visitors it earns its stop as the way into Heaney country – the South Derry townlands Seamus Heaney turned into some of the best-known poems in the language. The town itself is a workaday place of about 9,000 people, built around a central diamond on Broad Street that goes back to its 17th-century plantation layout. The name comes from the Irish Machaire Fíolta, ‘the plain of Fíolta’, after a long-vanished monastic settlement. It makes a good base and a thin day-trip in its own right: come for the poetry and the hills, not the retail.
History
The first written record of the town dates to 1425. During the Plantation of Ulster the surrounding lands went to the Worshipful Company of Salters, a London merchant guild, who laid down the grid and the central diamond; the Salters’ crest still turns up in local civic imagery. The Troubles hit the town hard – a 1993 car bomb wrecked much of the centre, and eleven people were killed in or near Magherafelt over the conflict. It has steadily rebuilt since the peace process.
Heaney country
This is the reason to come. Laurel Villa, a guesthouse at 60 Church Street, is Ireland’s only poetry-themed accommodation and runs bespoke Blue-Badge tours through South Derry with guide Eugene Kielt. The route takes in Heaney’s birthplace at Mossbawn, his old school, and the villages of Castledawson, Bellaghy and Toome, with a stop at the life-size ‘Turf Man’ sculpture that reads Digging back to you in bronze. Tours start from £12 per person and can be tied to tea and scones or a night at the villa.
A short drive on, in Bellaghy, the Seamus Heaney HomePlace is the main event: a multi-award-winning exhibition and visitor centre holding the poet’s school desk, a recreation of his Dublin study, and the fax machine that delivered the 1995 Nobel news. The adjacent ‘Open Ground’ trail links five places from his childhood so you can read the poems where they were set. If you only have an afternoon, skip the town centre and give it to Bellaghy.
Around town
The Bridewell
At the foot of Broad Street, the Bridewell served as the town’s courthouse and gaol. It now houses the visitor information centre – free to enter, open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 5.30pm and Saturday 9.30am to 5.00pm, with photocopying and internet access. The town library shares the building but has been listed as temporarily closed, so don’t count on it without checking first.
Churches
St Swithin’s Church of Ireland (1858) is the one worth a look: set into it is the ‘hanging stone’, a projecting block from an earlier structure said to have served as a gibbet during the 1641 rebellion. The Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Assumption (1882) and the First Presbyterian Church (1738), one of the oldest buildings in town, anchor the rest of the historic streetscape.
Pubs and shopping
Everyday shopping is covered by the Meadowlane Shopping Centre, with a Dunnes Stores, and a Tesco on Ballyronan Road. The pubs are where the town’s character sits: Dorman’s, Downey’s, Mary’s, The Step Inn, Dry Dock, The Coachman and LJ’s Tavern all line the main streets, several with live music.
Sport
The town fields a club in most codes: O’Donovan Rossa GAC for Gaelic football, Rainey Old Boys for rugby, Magherafelt Sky Blues for soccer, and Mid-Ulster clubs for athletics and swimming.
Walking and the outdoors
Slieve Gallion
Slieve Gallion (528 m) rises to the west of town. A paved lane climbs the southern flank to a radio transmitter, which makes it an easy afternoon rather than a proper hike, and the summit opens out across the Sperrins and Lough Neagh. It is a popular launch point for paragliders.
Springhill and the Sperrins
Near Moneymore, Springhill House is a 17th-century plantation house now run by the National Trust, with walled gardens and a well-known costume collection. Hillwalkers with more in the legs can push into the Sperrins for the summit cairn on Carntogher, which looks over Lough Foyle to Errigal and Muckish in Donegal and south-east to the Mournes, or seek out the Altkeeran waterfall near the source of the Grillagh.
Ballynahone Bog and Lough Neagh
North of town, Ballynahone Bog is the last large raised bog in Ulster, with boardwalks that let you cross the peatland to see sphagnum mosses and wading birds. Further east, the shores of Lough Neagh have marinas, camping and gentle woodland walks.
Jungle NI
For active families, Jungle NI runs a tree-top adventure course on the town’s outskirts, with zip-lines, rope bridges, climbing challenges and paintball.
Getting there
- Road: The town has been bypassed since 2016, which carries through-traffic round the eastern edge and keeps the centre clear.
- Bus: Ulsterbus runs from Magherafelt Buscentre – the 110 links to Antrim’s bus and railway station (for Belfast–Derry trains), the 112 to Draperstown, the 116 to Maghera, and the 127 to Portglenone and Ballymena.
- Rail: The town’s own station opened in 1856, closed to passengers in 1950 and shut entirely by 1959. The nearest working stop is Antrim, on the Belfast–Derry line.
Free parking is available at the Bridewell and the main car parks, with marked disabled spaces and step-free access to the visitor centre. Book the Laurel Villa tours at least a week ahead in summer, and if you have the choice, finish the day at the HomePlace and walk a stretch of the Open Ground trail out into the country the poems came from.