The St Columba Heritage Centre

01/09/2026

Consecration of St Columba’s Church Long Tower in 1946.

* An important one here, we have the Consecration of Long Tower chapel in 1946. Thanks to Michael Burns for sharing this image.

01/09/2026

Pangur Ban, our Top Cat - the indisputable leader of the pack. We have bilingual versions in Aras Cholmcille museum: Gives whole new meaning to copy cats.

Around the ninth century, an Irish monk working in a monastery far from home set his pen down for a moment and wrote a poem about his cat.

He wrote it in Irish, in the margin of a manuscript he was copying, and it survives in a small book now kept at an Austrian abbey. The cat was called Pangur Ban. The poem sets the two of them side by side at their work, the cat hunting mice in the dark of the room and the monk hunting meaning in the dark of a difficult text, each of them perfectly content and each entirely absorbed.

It is one of the oldest surviving poems in any European vernacular, and it is about nothing at all. There is no god in it, no king, no battle and no lament. There is a man, a cat, a candle and a night's work.

25/08/2026

"Our schools should be living laboratories of reconcilliation...in a constellation of hope...places of genuine witness...of heart to heart encounters...there is no algorithm for poetry, imagination, art, irony, love, learning from human mistakes." Privilege to hear Dr Melodie Wyttenbach share her learning today at Drawing New Maps of Hope, Diocese of Derry Conference in St Columb's College. Many thanks to Derry Diocesan Catechetical Centre and staff of St Columb's. Soul-stirring stuff with purpose.

13/08/2026

12 and 13th September: If heritage buildings hold stories, then this 50ft medieval-era cylinder of stone is a treasury of tales. We are opening this site to the public in celebration of European Heritage Open Weekend 12 and 13th September.

13/08/2026

Our Bishops Rt Rev Andrew Forster and Dr Donal McKeown with the Deputy Mayor Cllr Catherine McDaid attending the launch of a new sacred heritage trail linking five city centre churches across four denominations, including First Derry Presbyterian Church, St. Augustine's Church - Londonderry Long Tower, St Columb's Cathedral and Carlisle Road Methodist Church The project was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland, under its Reconcilliation Fund. Copies of the new brochure 'Pilgrims Together Trail' are available from Visit Derry and our city centre churches.

11/08/2026

Another fantastic museum open-morning with stained glass and Kells inspired crafting delivered in safe SEN-aware setting. The older kids finished with a tour of the museum highlights before hanging their work on this young oaktree. Thanks so much to Helen and Tresa of Always Ask the Turtle, the helpers and Team Cloisters. Funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council's Heritage Animation grant.

11/08/2026

We had such a great response to this event last year, that we've signed up for European Heritage Open Days 2026 again. This year we're focusing on the rich connections between this 6th century monastic isle and the evolution of European culture and identity. It all begins here with St Colm Cille, father of the book in Ireland.
Dates for your diary, 12th and 13th September.

09/08/2026

We might not have attracted large numbers to our one-off tour for Feile '26, but this culturally curious group were deeply engaged with the story of Derry's medieval cliogteach or belltower. Thanks to Declan Neilis for photography.

09/08/2026

You can say what you like...but we know bit of class when we see it. Rionach Wright's Gartan Lullaby, from Eithne's Dream.