Tobermore, An Tobar Mór, Co. Derry

An Tobar Mór · Co. Derry

A village named for a well, known for concrete. The Hendersons built both.

Tobermore is a one-industry village in south Derry, and the industry is concrete. The Henderson family started a sand and gravel quarry here in 1942, moved into precast concrete in the 1950s, into block paving in the late 1970s, and from there into being one of the biggest paving and walling manufacturers in these islands. The works are still here. The family still owns it. Most of the village either works for Tobermore Concrete or knows someone who does.

There are 713 people on the last NISRA count, down from 827 a decade earlier. A Presbyterian church that goes back to a 1728 building. A primary school. A chip shop. A bar. The Moyola River nearby. South of the road is farmland; north is Maghera; west is the long climb up into the Sperrins toward Draperstown. The village does not pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Come if you have a reason. There is no visitor centre, no heritage trail, no festival weekend. There is the road, the works, the church, the well that gave it the name. That is the whole story, and the village would not thank you for inventing more.

Population

713 (2021 census)

Walk score

End to end in ten minutes, works yard not included

Coords

54.8500° N, 6.7000° 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 works

The factory is the village.

Tobermore Concrete started as a sand and gravel pit in 1942 and grew into one of the UK and Ireland's biggest paving manufacturers. The plant sits at the edge of the village. The village sits at the edge of the plant. Hard to say which came first these days.

Stories & lore → 02 The name

"The great well."

An Tobar Mór. There was a well here long before the houses. The first recorded house in the settlement went up in 1727 - a James Moore built it, and a fair followed, and the village followed the fair.

Stories & lore → 03 The setting

South Derry farming country.

Tobermore sits 2.5 miles south-south-west of Maghera and 5.5 miles north-west of Magherafelt, in the rolling drumlins between the Sperrins and Lough Neagh. Most of the road in and out is hedgerow and grass.

Getting there →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Friel's Bar

Local, no pretence

Village bar

The pub in the village. Locals, a pint, no music tourism. Don't expect a session - this is south Derry farming country, not west Clare.

03 / 07

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Crispy Chip	Chipper	€	The takeaway. A bag of chips, a fish supper, eat them walking home. If you need a sit-down meal, drive to Magherafelt or Maghera.

04 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

A quarry that grew a village

Tobermore Concrete

Tobermore began in 1942 as a sand and gravel pit started by two Henderson brothers in the Magherafelt area. After the war, their brother Sam - a D-Day veteran - came home from France and put his savings into it. They moved into precast concrete products for the local trade in the 1950s, and in the late 1970s became one of the first firms on the island making block paving, marketed as 'Pavia'. David Henderson joined in 1976, took over as managing director in 1987, and pushed the company into the British market. It is now one of the largest paving and walling manufacturers in the UK and Ireland, and it is still based at the edge of the same Derry village.

Built in 1728

The Presbyterian church

The Tobermore Presbyterian congregation was formally created in 1737, after a first application to the Synod of Ulster the year before was turned down for fear of weakening the Maghera church. The Moyola River was set as the boundary between the two. The church building itself went up in 1728 - the Ordnance Survey memoirs of 1836 describe it as 'a plain white building with a slated roof, 69 feet by 25 feet inside'. The Knockloughrim congregation a few miles south, founded in 1696, was the parent of all the Presbyterian churches in this corner of Loughinsholin.

121 men, one small village

The Great War

From a village of around 350 people, 121 men enlisted with the 36th (Ulster) Division during the First World War. Twenty-four were killed; thirty-three came home wounded. The numbers are hard to take in until you walk the length of the village and try to picture them. Tobermore was overwhelmingly Protestant and unionist, and the Ulster Division recruited heavily here - the same pattern across most of south Derry.

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Mid-Ulster at its best - the Sperrins greening up, the back roads dry, the farms lambing.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and quiet roads. Nothing here is busy, summer included.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Hedgerow colour, harvest, low cloud over the Sperrins. A good month to pass through on a Draperstown loop.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, not much open beyond the bar and the chipper. Plan around the daylight.

◐ 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.

Looking for a heritage trail

There is not one. The village is the village. The well is unmarked. The church is a church. Walk it in ten minutes and move on.

Trying to tour the concrete works

Tobermore Concrete is a working manufacturing plant, not a visitor attraction. Drive past it on the way in and that is the tour.

Expecting a Sunday session

This is Presbyterian farming country with a strong evangelical streak. Sundays are quiet by design. If you want music, drive to Maghera or south to Bellaghy.

Getting there.

By car

On the B41 between Maghera and Draperstown. 10 minutes from Maghera, 15 from Magherafelt, 25 from Cookstown. From Belfast, about an hour via the M2 and the A6.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus services connect Magherafelt and Maghera with onward routes; check current timetables. Tobermore itself is a request stop on the local network.

By train

No train. Nearest station is Antrim or Belfast, then bus.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is around 45 minutes by car. City of Derry (LDY) is 50 minutes.