Ulster - train journeys through history
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From the platform at Derry train station, you can see the whole of the city laid out in front of you. One of the best-preserved walled cities in Western Europe, Derry in Northern Ireland can also lay claim to hosting the longest siege in British military history. In 1689, canon balls rained down for 105 days as James II’s Catholic army tried in vain to prise open the city gates, which had been shut in their faces by the Protestant “Apprentice Boys”.
From Derry, the train heads east, hugging the shores of Lough Foyle, a huge expanse of water that glitters like polished glass in the late August sunshine. As it passes, flocks of herons and waders take flight towards the hills of Donegal on the opposite banks of the lough, temporarily divested of their feast of salmon and trout.
Further north, towards the Atlantic coast, the water gradually gives way to vast mudflats, in turn segueing into mile after mile of virtually empty beach.
At Castlerock, children playing in the breakers turn and wave as we scoot by, while two riders canter over the crunchy, buff-coloured sand, and Saturday golfers work the championship course that backs onto the dunes.
If the tide’s out, it’s just a 20-minute walk along Castlerock beach to Downhill Park, once a sumptuous 18th-century estate built by the Earl of Bristol (of Harveys Bristol Cream fame), now an ethereal National Trust ruin set atop a windy headland. From the Mussenden Temple, a folly dedicated to the Earl’s “cousin” Mrs Mussenden, which teeters right on the edge of the cliffs, there are uninterrupted views over Downhill Strand to the Irish Republic and Mull of Kintyre beyond.
Heading southwards, the train follows the sweep of the River Bann towards the pretty town of Coleraine, home to the University of Ulster and some 6,000 students, a sheltered boating marina and a brand-new shopping centre.
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