Hidden Heritage - Literature and Heritage

The tour will begin at Church Island, a small island on Lough Beg near Bellaghy which can be viewed from Longpoint Wood. The tower and spire there were built for Lord Bishop Hervey of Derry in the late 1700's.

The journey will continue to Bellaghy Bawn which was built around 1619 by Sir Baptist Jones and features a mix of various building styles from different periods with the main house lived in until 1987.

Next on this Literature and Heritage tour is a visit to Seamus Heaney’s Grave, the poet's final resting place in Bellaghy. The inscription on his headstone is a line from Heaney's poem “The Gravel Walks”, which he used in his 1995 Nobel prize acceptance speech.

The final stop on the tour will visit Inishrush in Greenlough, a historic Gaelic elite site which was home to Brian Carragh O’Neill, a great Gaelic Lord of the 16th Century.

Tour will be delivered by Thomas McErlean, landscape archaeologist.

Booking is essential as spaces are limited. All cost £25 per person, including coach transfer departing from the Burnavon Arts & Cultural Centre, Cookstown, guided tour, refreshments, and a light lunch or supper. tour has a capacity of 25 persons.

Host or Publisher Mid Ulster District Council