Park, An Pháirc, Co. Derry

An Pháirc · Co. Derry

A Faughan Valley village under the highest of the Sperrins, with a hurling club named for a hunger striker.

Park is a rural Catholic parish in the foothills of the Sperrins, halfway between Dungiven and Claudy on the road that follows the River Faughan upstream. Five hundred people, give or take. A chapel, a primary school, the GAA pitch, and the long quiet road south toward Sawel and the Tyrone border. It does not look like much from a passing car. It is not meant to.

The name people from elsewhere recognise here is Kevin Lynch's. He grew up in Park, joined the INLA, died on hunger strike in the Maze in August 1981 after 71 days without food. The hurling section of the local Gaelic club was renamed in his honour the same year. The pitch in the village is one of the few public memorials to a 1981 hunger striker that doubles as a working sports ground for a couple of hundred children. That is the whole story of this place in one sentence - local memory, local identity, kept in motion rather than fenced off.

The country around the village is the other reason to come. Banagher Glen, a National Nature Reserve since 1974, is a few miles up the road - ancient oak and ash woodland in a steep glen with a 42-metre dam at its head. Learmount Castle and Forest sit on the village edge. Sawel and Dart, the two highest of the Sperrins, are a short drive south. None of it is signposted from the motorway. That is part of the point.

Population

~500

Coords

54.9011° N, 7.0656° W

01 / 04

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 valley

The Faughan rises on Sawel.

Park sits in the Faughan Valley between Dungiven and Claudy. The river that runs through Derry city to the Foyle starts its life on the slopes above the village.

Walks & outings → 02 The club

Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club.

The Gaelic club here is named for Kevin Lynch, the INLA volunteer from Park who died on hunger strike in 1981. The hurling section of Dungiven GAC took his name that year and has carried it since.

Stories & lore → 03 The mountain

Sawel, 678 metres.

The highest peak in the Sperrins sits south of the village. From the top on a clear day you can see Lough Neagh in one direction and the Foyle estuary in the other. Clear days are rare. Bring a jacket.

Walks & outings →

02 / 04

Stories & lore.

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

Park, 1956-1981

Kevin Lynch

Kevin Lynch was born in Park on 25 May 1956, the youngest of eight. Arrested in December 1976 on conspiracy charges, he was sentenced in 1977 to ten years and joined the blanket protest in the H-Blocks. He began his hunger strike on 23 May 1981 and died on 1 August, the seventh of the ten men to die that summer. While on hunger strike he stood - and very nearly won - a seat in the Dáil as a H-Block/Armagh candidate in Waterford. He was 25.

Cumann Iománaíochta Chaoimhín Uí Loingsigh

The Hurling Club

Dungiven GAC, founded in 1943, had a hurling section that played out of the Park area. In 1981 the hurlers split off and took Kevin Lynch's name; the footballers kept Dungiven's. Two clubs, two names, one parish. Kevin Lynch's HC have been one of the stronger hurling clubs in Ulster ever since - Derry senior county titles, the odd Ulster final. The pitch is on the village edge.

A river that starts on a mountain

The Faughan

The River Faughan rises on the north slope of Sawel, runs down through Park and Claudy and out into the Foyle below Derry city, twenty-nine miles in total. It is one of the best wild salmon rivers in the north, and one of the most-fought-over - pollution incidents, illegal abstractions, a long-running argument about a local water-bottling proposal. The Faughan Anglers' Association have been the de facto guardians for decades.

A plantation house above the village

Learmount

Learmount Castle, on the edge of Park, was rebuilt in 1830 in mock-Tudor by the Beresford family, plantation landlords who had been in the area since the early 1700s. The forest around it was planted by the same family and bought by the Forest Service after the Second World War. The castle did time as a girls' school in wartime, then as a youth hostel until 1983, and is privately held now.

03 / 04

Things to do outside.

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

Banagher Glen Nature Reserve Four miles north of Park, end of Magheramore Road. Ancient oak and ash woodland, National Nature Reserve since 1974, with the 42-metre Altnaheglish dam at the head of the glen. The short waymarked loops are easy; the full circular through Banagher Forest is a proper half-day.

Various, up to 14 kmdistance

1-4 hourstime

Sawel from Sperrin The highest Sperrin, 678 metres. Park your car on the Sperrin road south of the village and head up the bog. There is no marked path. Navigation is the day's work in cloud, which is most days. Pair it with Dart on a clear one.

8 km returndistance

3-4 hourstime

Learmount Forest On the village edge. 118 hectares of mixed forest on the northern foothills of the Sperrins, with the old castle visible through the trees. A short, easy loop if Banagher feels like too much commitment.

3 km loopdistance

1 hourtime

Getting there.

By car

Derry to Park is 35 minutes via Claudy on the B69. Dungiven is 15 minutes east on the same road. From Belfast, allow 1h 30m via the M2 and the Glenshane Pass.

By bus

No regular service through the village. The Ulsterbus 212 (Derry-Belfast Goldline) stops in Dungiven; a taxi from there is the usual finish.

By train

Nearest station is Derry/Londonderry, 35 minutes by car.

By air

City of Derry Airport is 40 minutes. Belfast International is 1h 15m.