Feeny, Na Fíneadha, Co. Derry

Na Fíneadha · Co. Derry

Two pubs, an ancient oak glen, and a Georgian house full of dogs.

Feeny is a single street running down a hill in the Sperrins foothills, on the B74 between Dungiven and Park. Na Fíneadha in Irish - the woodlands - for the oak forests that once filled the valley and still survive, in patches, on its doorstep. About 690 people at the 2011 census, classified by NISRA as a small village ever since. Catholic, by a long way. Quiet, in a way Sperrins villages are quiet - not asleep, just not performing.

What's actually here is short. Two pubs on Main Street. A Spar. A health centre. A community hall. A primary school. And Drumcovitt House up the lane, the Fishmongers' Company plantation seat with a Georgian frontage added in 1796 and a row of beeches planted in 1815 to mark Waterloo. Run as a B&B and self-catering cottages for thirty-odd years by the same family. The dogs come out to meet you.

The reasons to drive here are around the village rather than in it. Banagher Glen, ten minutes east - ancient oak woodland, a designated nature reserve since 1974, a properly steep ravine running up to a 1930s reservoir dam. Banagher Old Church, in the next townland over, where the medieval parish church has been quietly falling apart since the 17th century and the saint's mortuary house stands in the graveyard. Learmount Forest a few miles further down the B74 at Park, with the 1830 castle and the river walk. Stay a night at Drumcovitt; do the glen and the church the morning after; carry on.

Population

~690 (2011 Census; classified as a small village by NISRA)

Walk score

Main Street top to bottom in five minutes

Coords

54.9075° N, 7.0606° W

01 / 08

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The glen

Banagher Glen is the reason to come.

One of the oldest oak and ash woodlands in Ireland, a National Nature Reserve since 1974, a Special Area of Conservation, and a deep ravine leading up to the Altnaheglish dam. Signposted off the B74 between Feeny and Dungiven.

Walks & outings → 02 The old church

Banagher Old Church, first mentioned 1121.

Nave from the early 12th century, chancel added in the 13th. Inside the graveyard, a seven-foot mortuary house said to hold the bones of St Murrough O'Heney. Take a pinch of sand from beneath it - the locals say it brings luck, especially on the football field.

Stories & lore → 03 The village

Two pubs, one main street, a hill in the middle.

The locals call them the top bar and the bottom bar for the obvious reason. One Spar, one chapel, one community centre, and Drumcovitt House up the lane with the beeches Wellington's victory planted in 1815.

Where to drink →

02 / 08

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Sperrinview Bar

Local, lived-in

Village pub

32-34 Main Street. The top bar in local parlance, halfway up the hill. Traditional village pub doing traditional village pub things - pints, talk, the match on the telly when there is one. CAMRA-listed, not because it's a craft place, but because it's still here.

The bottom bar

Working bar

Village pub

Down the hill on Main Street. The other half of Feeny's pub life. Locals refer to the two simply as the top bar and the bottom bar; the formal name turns over occasionally. Walk in, order a pint, see which one it is this season.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Drumcovitt House	Georgian B&B & self-catering cottages	Listed Georgian country house - original four-storey block c.1700, Georgian frontage added 1796, beeches planted in 1815 to mark Wellington's win at Waterloo. Built originally by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers as part of the Plantation. Run as a B&B by Sarah and Chris in the main house, with self-catering cottages converted from the old barn at the back. Log fires, books, dogs, gardens. Twenty-five minutes to Derry, an hour to Belfast.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

St Murrough O'Heney and a pinch of lucky sand

Banagher Old Church

The medieval parish church at Banagher, two miles outside Feeny, was first mentioned in 1121. The nave dates from the early-to-mid 12th century; the chancel was added in the 13th. Archbishop Colton of Armagh used it as his base for his visitation of the diocese of Derry in 1397. It was abandoned in the 17th century and has been a ruin ever since. In the graveyard stands a seven-foot stone mortuary house, said to hold the remains of St Murrough O'Heney, the local founder-saint. The living tradition is that sand taken from beneath the mortuary house brings luck, particularly in sport - Banagher Sand is still occasionally carried in a pocket onto a GAA pitch. The church is a state-care monument; the gate is usually open.

The woodlands the village is named for

Na Fíneadha

The Irish name means the woodlands, and the oak forests it refers to are still partly here. Banagher Glen, on Feeny's doorstep, preserves one of Ireland's oldest surviving oak and ash woodlands - a National Nature Reserve since 1974, a Special Area of Conservation, and a remnant of the great forests that covered most of Ulster before the medieval period. The Aughlish Stone Circles, Bronze Age, sit about three kilometres from the village, which says how long people have been living and worshipping in this valley. The forest came first; the village settled in among what was left of it.

The slow demographic shift

A Catholic village by 2001

In 1911 Feeny was a mixed community - roughly 57% Catholic, 43% Protestant. By 2001 the Protestant population of the village numbered around twenty individuals. The shift mirrors the broader pattern across rural west Derry through the 20th century, accelerated by the Troubles. A UDR soldier, James Hood, was killed by the Provisional IRA near the village on 4 January 1973, the kind of local event that does not get into the national history books but reshaped who stayed and who left. The village today is overwhelmingly Catholic - the 2011 census put it at about 94%. The community has settled into what it became.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Banagher Glen Nature Reserve Surfaced track from the car park up through the oak woodland to Altnaheglish Reservoir and the Banagher Dam. Bluebells under the trees in May, brown river in spate after rain, no traffic on the road. Designated nature reserve since 1974. Car park is signposted off the B74 between Feeny and Dungiven.

6 km return to the damdistance

2 hourstime

Banagher Forest loop The longer option from the same car park - forest tracks climbing above the glen into the Sperrin foothills. Good in any weather, though heavy rain turns it to porridge. Mountain bikes use it too.

11 km looped traildistance

3-4 hourstime

Learmount Forest, Park Six minutes further down the B74 at Park village, off Learmount Road. River Faughan walks, mixed woodland with trees over a hundred years old, and the 1830 Learmount Castle in among the trees. Free, open all year, car park at the community centre.

4 km of trailsdistance

1-2 hourstime

Banagher Old Church Not a walk so much as a visit. Park at the gate off the Dungiven road, walk up the lane, look around the ruined church and the graveyard. The mortuary house is the small stone building near the east end. Allow longer if you read the headstones.

500m from the roaddistance

20 mintime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Banagher Glen is at its best - bluebells, the river up, the oaks coming back into leaf. Lambs in the fields. Days lengthening.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, dry tracks, mountain bikes on the forest loops. Never crowded in any tourist sense. The pubs are quieter than you'd expect - locals are out at the GAA.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The oaks turn. Glen walks at their photogenic best. The pubs warm up again as the evenings draw in.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and Sperrins weather. The glen can be magical in frost and treacherous after rain. Half the social life of the village is the chapel and the pub and not much else.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Looking for restaurants in the village

There aren't any. Two pubs, a Spar, that's the food map. Eat in Dungiven (ten minutes) or bring it with you and have a picnic in the glen.

Driving past on the B74 without stopping

The reasons to be here are signposted off the road, not on it. Banagher Glen, Banagher Old Church and Drumcovitt House are all a turn off the main route. Take the turn.

Expecting Glenshane Country Farm to be here

It's on the Glenshane Pass at Maghera, the other side of Dungiven. Worth a visit, but plan it as part of a Maghera or Glenshane day, not a Feeny one.

Getting there.

By car

Dungiven to Feeny is about 8km - ten minutes on the B74. Derry city is 30km west, around 30 minutes via the A6 and the B74. Claudy is 20 minutes west. Limavady is half an hour north over the Sperrins foothills.

By bus

Translink service 148 runs roughly hourly between Dungiven and Feeny, about ten minutes' run. For Derry or Belfast, change at Dungiven for the Goldliner 212.

By train

No train. The Roe Valley line shut in 1950. Nearest station is Castlerock or Coleraine on the north coast.

By air

City of Derry Airport (LDY) is about 40 minutes by car via the A6 and the B68. Belfast International is around 90 minutes via the Glenshane Pass.

Next on the tour

Co. Derry

Dungiven

Ten minutes north on the B74. Roe Valley market town under Benbradagh, with the O'Cahan tomb in the ruined priory above the river.

Co. Derry

Claudy

Twenty minutes west, on the road to Derry. Faughan Valley village remembered for the 1972 bombings. Quiet now, with the Sperrins behind it.

Co. Derry

Maghera

Over the Glenshane Pass to the south. Old monastic town under Carntogher, gateway to the South Sperrins and the road to Belfast.

Co. Derry

Park

A kilometre north-east up the road, hard under the tallest of the Sperrins.