Tower Museum

Tower Museum Review

Tall, brooding, medieval, and magical, the reconstructed granite-stone O'Dohertys Tower contains the Tower Museum, which chronicles the history of Derry. The building was constructed in 1615 by the O'Dohertys for their overlords, the O'Donnells, in lieu of tax payments. Highlights of the museum include a small section on the eccentric Bishop Frederick Augustus Hervey (1763-1803), who conducted a lifelong affair with the mistress of Frederick William II of Prussia, built the now derelict Downhill Castle above the cliffs outside the city, and allegedly had his curates stage naked sprints along the beach while he horsewhipped them. The winners were awarded the most lucrative parishes in the district. There's excellent information celebrating the life and legacy of St. Columba. The vivid "Story of Derry" exhibition covers the city's history, from its origins as a monastic settlement in an oak grove up to the Troubles, beginning in 1969 after years of institutionalized discrimination in jobs and public housing. (A well-known Derry joke is that the skeleton in the city's coat of arms was actually a Catholic waiting for a house.) There's also an exhibition, spread over four floors, on the Spanish Armada, thanks to the fact that its fourth-largest ship, La Trinidad Valencera, foundered in Kinnagoe Bay, in County Donegal, in 1588.