Maghera

A town at the foot of the Glenshane Pass whose church was founded by St Lurach in the 6th century. The ruined Old Church has a carved crucifixion over its doorway, possibly the oldest in Ireland. Charles Thomson, who signed the American Declaration of Independence, recorded himself as from Maghera.

The Tirnony dolmen a mile north is thought to be 4,000 to 8,000 years old. St Lurach founded a church by the 6th century, and the nave of the Old Church dates from the 10th century, with a crucifixion relief likely added in the 12th. After the church and town were burned in the 12th century Maghera became the seat of the Bishop of Derry, until in 1246 Bishop Germanus O'Carolan got leave from Pope Innocent IV to move the see to Derry. Scottish settlers came after the Plantation and 1641, and many later emigrated to America.

On 7 June 1798 more than 5,000 United Irishmen mustered here but broke up the next morning on news of the defeat at Antrim; the elder Watty Graham was executed and his head paraded through the town, and his minister John Glendy was exiled to America. On 12 July 1830 Orangemen and Ribbonmen clashed and Catholic homes were burned. The Famine left the countryside with a loss of people never recovered. In the early 20th century the town had a railway station, an embroidery factory and a weekly market.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Maghera ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

• Corick · stone circle · 13 km
• Bellaghy Bawn · castle · 11 km

Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.

• Beaghmore stone circles · Seven stone circles, a dozen cairns and rows of tiny 'dragon's teeth' stones, hidden under bog for 3,500 years until turf-cutters found them in the 1940s.
• Banagher Old Church · A stone mortuary house two metres high, the finest of a small Ulster group, said to hold the bones of Muiredach O’Heney. An inscription claims 474; the building is more likely late 11th century, and the Annals of Ulster first mention the place in 1121.
• Banagher — the lucky sand · Sand lifted from beside Muiredach O’Heney’s mortuary house is supposed to bring luck to whoever carries it — and the tradition is not dead: people still take it before a match.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.