Moving
on, the Royal Bastion overlooks the former bog below and St Eugene's
Cathedral (1873) sited on the sweeping hills to Creggan. On this
bastion in 1826 was erected a 27m tall monument to the Reverend
George Walker, Joint-Governor of Derry during the Great Siege.
It was destroyed by a bomb in 1973 and replaced by a commemorative
plinth in 1992.
Between
Royal Bastion and Butcher's Gate, just inside the Walls, lies the Memorial
Hall. This building is the headquarters of the Apprentice Boys who
take their name and tradition from the thirteen Guild apprentices who
shut the city Gates against King James's troops in 1688 as their elders
hesitated. This was the symbolic start of the Great Siege of Derry
which lasted for 105 days, from 18 April to 28 July 1689.
Next is Butcher's
Gate which bore the brunt of the Jacobite attacks and, just beside
it, the remains of Gunner's Bastion. The master gunner's house
Continuing
past Castle Gate there is a platform referred to as Hangman's
Bastion. This is so called because, during the Great Siege, a
man tried to escape over the Walls at this point by getting his
friends to lower him by a rope. Instead of helping him to freedom
it caught around his neck and almost hanged him.

Photos
Panoramas
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