Derry/Londonderry

From Royal Bastion descend the stone steps onto Fahan Street — three minutes down, the same route civil-rights marchers walked in January 1972. Free Derry Corner — the white gable wall reading 'You Are Now Entering Free Derry' — sits straight ahead at the Lecky/Rossville junction. Loop clockwise around Rossville Street to read all twelve murals of the People's Gallery, painted between 1997 and 2008 by the three Bogside Artists who grew up on these pavements: 'The Petrol Bomber', 'Bloody Sunday Commemoration', 'The Death of Innocence', 'The Saturday Matinée'. Each one tells a single morning of the Troubles in one wall.

Tip: Begin at the Bloody Sunday Memorial obelisk in the centre of the square first, then walk the murals in the painted order using the numbered plaques at each base — they're meant to be read like a graphic novel. Decline the £10 'Bogside guided tours' touted near the wall: the murals are free, fully captioned, and walking them yourself is the whole point of being here.

Walk north along Rossville Street and Strand Road for 8 minutes — you'll pass the Guildhall's neo-Gothic clock tower on the right (worth one photo from the cobbled square in front). Pyke 'N' Pommes is the bright shipping-container kitchen on the Quay, run by Kevin Pyke who turned a single food truck into Derry's most-loved lunch counter. Order the Notorious P.I.G. (slow-pulled pork with chipotle slaw in a brioche bun, £9.50) or the Bao'Cone — eight-hour braised beef inside a tempura-fried cone, £8.50 — and eat them on the riverside bench with the River Foyle running past your feet.

Tip: Order at the window, not on the app — the staff will tell you what's just come off the grill in the last ten minutes, and that's always the one to get. Arrive before 13:00 to slip in ahead of the courthouse and council office crowd; after 13:15 the queue stretches twenty deep.

Five minutes south back along the Quay, turn left up Orchard Street — the mural appears suddenly on the gable end of Badgers Bar. Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and the wee English fella stand two storeys tall, painted by UV Arts in 2019 in the show's exact colour palette. Lisa McGee actually shot most of the series in Belfast, but this gable is where the young cast crashed between read-throughs, and the wall has become Derry's single most-Instagrammed spot.

Tip: Stand in the doorway of the building directly opposite (No. 18) for the full frame — any closer and your phone lens distorts Erin's forehead into a fishbowl. Early afternoon catches the wall in soft side-light; by 16:30 the gable falls into deep shadow and the colours go flat, so don't push this stop any later.

From the Derry Girls wall walk north along Foyle Street for ten minutes — the Peace Bridge's twin leaning S-curves rise over the Foyle ahead of you. Cross it slowly: designed by Wilkinson Eyre and opened in 2011, the deck deliberately bends so the two communities — Unionist Waterside and Nationalist Cityside — 'meet in the middle'. The far side opens into Ebrington Square, the former British Army barracks now Derry's biggest public space, with the parade ground intact and the old officers' quarters lining the perimeter. Walk to the western parapet of Ebrington for the day's signature view: the sun setting behind the walled city, the bridge silhouetted in front, the twin spires of the Guildhall and St Columb's lit gold.

Tip: Time your crossing for 30 minutes before sunset (check Met Éireann that morning — in May that's around 21:00, in September around 19:30). The shot — bridge in foreground, walled-city skyline behind, sun dropping behind the Guildhall tower — only works from the western edge of Ebrington Square; from inside the walls you're shooting straight into the sun and the bridge silhouettes against nothing.

Two-minute walk back across Ebrington Square — the brewery is the long stone building on the south side, in the old Officers' Mess. Brewer-chef James Huey opened it in 2015; every tap pours something fermented five metres from your table. Order the Stoneroller Pale (£5.80) alongside the slow-braised featherblade of beef in stout gravy (£24) — or the wood-fired pizza with Lough Foyle oysters and wild garlic (£18) if you want something lighter before the late train.

Tip: Book a table online by 18:00 on weekends or take a stool at the long copper bar — the bar seats face directly into the tanks and food comes out 10 minutes faster. Pitfall warning: avoid the 'authentic Irish' pubs along Waterloo Street back inside the walls (especially the brightly-painted ones with chalkboards advertising 'Trad Music Tonight!') — several charge £8+ for a pint of mass-market lager that's £4.50 anywhere a local actually drinks, and the food is microwaved. Same goes for any restaurant whose menu is printed in four languages.