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SWATRAGH

CO. DERRY · IE

Swatragh
An Suaitreach

The Sperrins / Mid Ulster
STOP 08 / 08

An Suaitreach · Co. Derry

A29 village between Maghera and Garvagh. The mart on Monday, the GAA on Sunday, Friels in between.

Swatragh is a small village on the A29 between Maghera and Garvagh, in the south of Derry where the road starts to climb towards the Sperrins. The 2021 census counted 372 people — down from 438 a decade earlier. There is one main street, three churches (Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian), a primary school, a livestock mart on the Garvagh Road, and a GAA pitch out the back. That's the whole shape of it.

The name is unusual. An Suaitreach means "the billeted soldier" — a memory of the seventeenth-century Plantation when the surrounding 42 townlands were granted to the Mercers' Company of London and English garrison soldiers were quartered on Irish households. The Mercers' Plat of 1622 recorded the area as well-wooded hinterland. The woods are mostly gone; the name stuck.

Three things hold the place together. The mart, which has run on the Garvagh Road for generations and still draws cattle from across mid-Ulster on a Monday morning. The GAA club — Michael Davitt's, founded in 1908, one of the bigger south Derry sides, with a Senior final in 1993 and Anthony Tohill on the team-sheet. And Friels, the listed 1835 inn on the main street that the Friel family bought at public auction in 1903 and have held since. Show up on a quiet weekday and the village looks asleep. Show up on a Monday morning, or a championship Sunday, and the small place gets a lot bigger.

Population

372 (NISRA 2021)

Walk score

Main street top to bottom in five minutes

Founded

Plantation-era village on the Mercers' proportion, 17th century

Coords

54.9106° N, 6.6586° 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 club

One of south Derry's serious GAA clubs.

Michael Davitt's GAC Swatragh reached the Derry Senior Football Championship final in 1993 — beaten by Lavey on Stephen's Day in the snow at Glenullin. Anthony Tohill, who won the All-Ireland with Derry that same year, came out of here.

Stories & lore → 02 The mart

Cattle on Mondays, sheep on Saturdays.

Swatragh Livestock Market sits on the Garvagh Road at the edge of the village. Monday cattle sales at 11:30am, Saturday sheep sales at 10:30am, breeding sales at night as advertised. One of the busier marts in the north.

Stories & lore → 03 The inn

Friels has been pouring since 1835.

Listed building, original wooden bar and ceiling intact, fifth-generation Friel family running it. Coaching inn, then post office, then dispensary, now an award-winning bar and restaurant. The famine pot is on display in the old Post Office.

Pubs →

02 / 08

The pubs.

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

Friels Bar

Old wooden counter, fifth-generation family

Bar in a listed 1835 building

The public bar still has the original ornate wooden counter and ceiling. The deeds — the building was bought at public auction by John Friel on 26 September 1903 — are framed on the wall. Live music on regular weekend nights. The motorhome park out the back is a quiet north-of-Ireland touring stop.

Rafters Bar and Restaurant

Local, food-led

Traditional bar and restaurant on the main road

The other operating pub in the village. Bar food and a restaurant. Less of a destination than Friels but the locals' alternative when Friels is booked out for a function.

03 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Friels Restaurant	Restaurant in the 1835 inn	€€	Award-winning Mid-Ulster restaurant attached to the bar. Local suppliers, including Irish Moilie beef. Sunday lunches book out. The kind of place a wedding takes over and you also fit in if you ring ahead.
The Country Cafe	Cafe — Unit 1, Garvagh Road	€	Day-time cafe on the Garvagh Road end of the village. Breakfast, lunch, scones. Rated well by passing trade. Closes when the kitchen winds down in the afternoon.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

Swatragh, Lavey, snow at Glenullin

The 1993 Championship final

Swatragh GAC reached the Derry Senior Football Championship final for the only time in their history in 1993. The fixture was pushed back into the winter because the Derry county side had spent the autumn winning the All-Ireland — beating Cork in the final on the third Sunday in September. Anthony Tohill of Swatragh, then 22, was on the All-Ireland-winning team. He was top scorer in the Derry Championship that year with 2-26. The Swatragh club final was played on Stephen's Day in the snow at Glenullin. Lavey won. The team had hurling, camogie and football running together by then — hurling started at the club in 1976 under Patsy Quigg — and the 2001 camogie side went all the way to an All-Ireland Senior Club final. The clubhouse on the edge of the village is named for Michael Davitt, the Mayo land-reformer.

Cattle Monday, sheep Saturday

The mart on the Garvagh Road

Swatragh Livestock Market at 29 Garvagh Road has been the village's economic anchor for decades. Cattle sales run on Mondays at 11:30am, sheep on Saturdays at 10:30am, breeding stock by appointment at 7:30pm. Northern Counties Co-operative Enterprises run it. On a sale morning the village fills with stock lorries and the cafes are busy. May 2025 saw a breeding-cattle sale with a 93% clearance rate, a Charolais bull topping at £5,000. Storm Éowyn knocked out power and cancelled a January 2025 weekend's sales — a small reminder that a mart is still a working farm building, not a heritage one.

Mercers' Plat, 1622

Why the name says "soldier"

An Suaitreach — "the billeted soldier" — preserves the seventeenth-century military logistics of the Ulster Plantation. The Mercers' Company of London were granted 42 townlands in this corner of south Derry from 1609, and the Plat of the Mercers' Proportion drawn up in 1622 recorded the area as well-wooded country with English settlers among Irish tenants. "Billeted" refers to the practice of quartering Crown soldiers on local households at the household's expense — common during the plantation period and well into the eighteenth century. The woods that fed the colonial timber trade are mostly cleared. The surrounding farmland is fat dairy and beef country running up to the Sperrins. The name is the longest-lasting plantation artefact in the village.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

The village to the GAA pitch and back There isn't a marked walk in the village proper. A loop from the main street out past Michael Davitt Park (the club grounds) and back round is what most people mean by "a walk in Swatragh". On a championship Sunday do not try to drive it; on any other day it's quiet.

1.5 kmdistance

20 mintime

Carntogher / Glenshane Pass (drive on) If you've come for walking, the real ground is the Carntogher ridge and Glenshane Pass over the back of Maghera — fifteen minutes south on the A29 and then up. The Carntogher Way is the way-marked option. Pack waterproofs; the Sperrins make their own weather.

Trailhead 15 minutes south at Glenshanedistance

3–4 hours on the hilltime

Banagher Forest (drive on) Forest trails and the old Banagher Glen on the road to Dungiven. A longer drive than Glenshane but quieter, with a good chance of nobody else on the path. Use this if Carntogher is in cloud.

Trailhead 25 minutes westdistance

1–3 hourstime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Lambing on the surrounding farms, the mart busy with breeding sales, the road clear of summer caravans. Good light over the hills.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings, GAA championship football starting in June, the cafes busy with passing trade between Belfast and Donegal.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

County championship climax, mart back to full swing after the show season, weather still workable for the Sperrins.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Storms come over the Sperrins hard — Éowyn closed the mart in January 2025. The village is quiet. Friels keeps the lights on; everything else is variable.

◐ 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.

Treating Swatragh as a tourist destination

It isn't one. It's a working village with a mart and a club and a 1835 pub. Stop for a meal at Friels on the way to or from the coast, or come for the GAA on a Sunday. Don't plan a weekend around it.

Driving the A29 on a Monday morning expecting a quiet road

The mart pulls cattle lorries from across mid-Ulster. The Garvagh Road junction at the edge of the village turns into a slow-moving farm yard between about 10am and 1pm. Add half an hour to your time.

Looking for the Sperrins from inside the village

The hills are there but the village sits in the lee of them. For the views you have to drive on — Glenshane Pass south, or the Carntogher road behind Maghera. The village itself is farmland, not mountain.

Getting there.

By car

Maghera to Swatragh is 5 km / 7 minutes north on the A29. Garvagh is 10 km / 12 minutes north on the same road. Belfast is 1h 5m via the M2 and A6. Derry is 50 minutes northwest via the A6 and A29.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus services run the A29 corridor between Maghera and Coleraine via Swatragh and Garvagh. Limited daily service; check the live Translink timetable before you rely on it.

By train

No station. Nearest line is Antrim or Coleraine, then bus or taxi.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is 50 minutes by car. City of Derry (LDY) is 45 minutes northwest. Belfast City (BHD) is 1h 10m.