Longtower Church

Beginning life on a much smaller scale, Longtower Chapel was the dream of Father John Lynch of Balteagh, Dungiven. As the parish priest of Derry at the time, Lynch was more used to conducting mass at his Ferguson’s Lane home, or beneath the hawthorn tree marking the site of the original Teampall Mór until, considering the times more favourable to the building of a church, he set about raising funds for the project.

Moneys raised (including 200 guineas from the Protestant Bishop of Derry), building began in 1784 to straight-forward plans. Two years later, with work still ongoing, the funeral of Father Lynch took place as the preacher spoke to the congregation from a makeshift alter of rocks left behind by workers.

Relatively unchanged for a majority of its time, in recent decades it has seen quite a lot of additions and improvements made to the Church and other buildings and contains a mass of historical artefacts; stained glass windows, the Hannigan Monstrance, the Central Gallery’s organ and the opus sectile pictures scattered around the magnificent building.

Longtower Church Derry