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GREYSTEEL

CO. DERRY · IE

Greysteel
An Chloch Liath

The Causeway Coast & Glens
STOP 05 / 06

An Chloch Liath · Co. Derry

A village on the A2 the world learned the name of on Halloween night, 1993.

Greysteel is a small village on the A2 between Eglinton and Limavady — about 1,400 people in the 2021 census, a parade of houses, a couple of shops, a community hall, a GAA pitch, the Rising Sun Bar at the eastern end. The name comes from the Irish An Chloch Liath, the grey stone. On any ordinary day it is the kind of village you would drive through without noticing, glancing left at the Foyle and right at the Sperrin foothills.

What is not ordinary is the night of 30 October 1993. Just before ten that Saturday evening, three members of the Ulster Defence Association's North Antrim and Londonderry Brigade walked into the Rising Sun Bar, where about seventy people were at a Halloween party. Stephen Irwin shouted 'trick or treat' and opened fire with a Czech vz. 58 rifle. Geoffrey Deeney's handgun jammed. Torrens Knight stood at the door with a shotgun. Eight people died — six Catholics, two Protestants — and nineteen were wounded. The attack was loyalist retaliation for the Provisional IRA's Shankill Road bombing eight days earlier, which had killed nine civilians and one of the bombers. Greysteel was chosen, the trial heard, because it was a long way from the security activity around Belfast.

Karen Thompson was 19. James Moore was 81. Steven Mullan, Moira Duddy, Joseph McDermott, John Moyne, John Burns and Victor Montgomery were everything in between. The Rising Sun reopened. It is still a working pub. A memorial garden sits on the road outside with the names on it and the line 'May their sacrifice be our path to peace.' Annual services bring both communities together. None of this is closure. It is the village going on.

There is more to Greysteel than the worst night it ever had — Faughanvale parish back to the Plantation, the Grocers' Company manor that drew the early lines, a 1933 GAA club, the lough below and the forests above. But you cannot honestly write about this place without writing about 1993 first. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Population

1,418 (2021)

Walk score

End to end in fifteen minutes

Coords

55.0631° N, 7.0639° W

01 / 07

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 bar

The Rising Sun is still open.

On 30 October 1993, three UDA gunmen walked into a Halloween crowd here. The bar reopened. It is still a pub. That is not a small thing.

The 1993 attack → 02 The road

Between Derry and Limavady, on the A2.

Nine miles east of Derry city, seven west of Limavady, four kilometres from City of Derry Airport. Lough Foyle on one shoulder, the Sperrin foothills on the other.

Getting here → 03 The forests

Loughermore behind, Ballykelly along the road.

Twelve miles of gravel trail above the village in Loughermore, and Ballykelly Forest a few minutes east. The Roe estuary spreads out below.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

The Rising Sun Bar

Working local, weight of history

Pub, 105 Killylane Road

The pub at the eastern end of the village, on the A2. Reopened and rebuilt after the 1993 attack and has traded continuously since. A working local. If you go in, go in to drink quietly and treat the place with the respect any village pub deserves — and a bit more here than most.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

"Trick or treat" at the Rising Sun

Halloween, 1993

On the evening of Saturday 30 October 1993, three UDA gunmen in blue boiler suits and balaclavas entered the Rising Sun Bar, where a Halloween party was underway. Some people at first thought it was a prank. Stephen Irwin shouted 'trick or treat' and opened fire with a Czech vz. 58 assault rifle, reloading once. Geoffrey Deeney's pistol jammed after a single shot. Torrens Knight stood at the door with a shotgun. The gunmen left laughing. Seven people died at the scene; an eighth died later of his wounds. Nineteen were injured. It is one of the worst loyalist attacks of the Troubles.

Catholic and Protestant, 19 to 81

The eight names

Karen Thompson (19), Steven Mullan (20), Moira Duddy (59), Joseph McDermott (60), James Moore (81), John Moyne (50), John Burns (54), Victor Montgomery (76). Six were Catholic, two Protestant. The attack was indiscriminate by design — the UDA called it retaliation for the Shankill Road bombing eight days earlier, which the Provisional IRA had carried out against what it claimed was a UDA meeting upstairs at Frizzell's fish shop. There was no meeting; nine Protestant civilians and one of the IRA bombers died. Greysteel was the second answer. The first, two days before, had been the killing of two Catholic council workers at Kennedy Way in Belfast.

And the memorial outside

The Rising Sun reopened

The Rising Sun reopened after the attack and has traded as a village pub ever since. A memorial garden sits at the entrance with the eight names and the inscription 'May their sacrifice be our path to peace.' Annual cross-community services have taken place in the village every year since, the 25th and 30th anniversaries among the largest. The convicted men were released early under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The village did not get to choose any of that. It chose what to do afterwards.

The older history under the village name

Faughanvale and the Grocers

Greysteel sits in the parish of Faughanvale, which the Grocers' Company of London took on at the 1609 Ulster Plantation — the same livery company that built nearby Eglinton's Main Street two centuries later. The first plantation church here was put up in 1626. The townland names — Gresteel More and Gresteel Beg — preserve the Irish An Chloch Liath, the grey stone, that the village is named for. Faughanvale GAC, the local Gaelic Athletic Association club, was founded in 1933 and still plays at the pitch on the village's edge.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Loughermore Forest South of the village on the B69, climbing into the hills above the Foyle. Mostly conifer with native broadleaf coming back in places. The trig point at the top of the forest gives views to Lough Foyle, Binevenagh and the Donegal hills. A standing-stone grave is buried in the woods. Forestry operations can close sections without warning.

12 miles of gravel trail, pick a loopdistance

1–3 hourstime

Ballykelly Forest A few minutes east on the A2 toward Limavady. Trails north and south of the road, easy walking, fishing on the Burnfoot Burn for those who carry rods. Ruins of Ballykelly Castle and a 17th-century church sit on the southern side. Suits a wet afternoon better than a long one.

Short waymarked loopsdistance

30–90 mintime

The Roe estuary North of the village the land flattens into the Roe estuary as it joins Lough Foyle — wide tidal mud, brent geese in winter, the Donegal coast on the far side. Best approached from Ballykelly or Myroe. No formal trail. Wear boots and watch the tide.

Variable along the shore roaddistance

1 hour or longertime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Loughermore comes into leaf, the Foyle softens, brent geese still on the estuary. Quiet on the A2.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings on the lough, the Causeway Coast within reach, the airport at peak schedule. The village is a sane base.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

The 30 October anniversary falls in this window. The village marks it. Visitors who want to attend a memorial service should ask quietly and respectfully; otherwise leave the date to the families.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov–Feb

Short days, fog off the Foyle, geese on the mudflats. The pub is open. Not much else needs to be.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Treating Greysteel as a day-trip destination

It is a village on a main road, not a day out. An hour is plenty. Use it as a pass-through between Derry and the Causeway Coast, or as a base near the airport, and put your day into Loughermore, the Foyle or the coast.

Driving the A2 in a rush at school-run hours

The Limavady road through Greysteel is the main artery to City of Derry Airport and the daily commute into the city. Mornings and late afternoons it grinds. Leave half an hour you do not think you need.

Looking for nightlife

There is one pub of any size and a village hall. The night out is in Derry, ten minutes west. The Rising Sun is for a quiet pint, not a session.

Getting there.

By car

On the A2 Derry–Limavady road. Ten minutes from Derry city, fifteen from Limavady. City of Derry Airport is four kilometres west.

By bus

Translink route 143 (Foyle Express) and the 234 local service run along the A2 between Derry and Limavady, stopping in Greysteel. Roughly hourly on weekdays, less frequent weekends.

By train

No station. Nearest is Derry/Londonderry, then bus or taxi out the A2 — about fifteen minutes.

By air

City of Derry Airport (LDY) is four kilometres west, in Eglinton. Loganair to London Heathrow, Ryanair to Manchester, easyJet to Edinburgh, Liverpool and Birmingham. Belfast International is 90 minutes by road.