The Tower Museum in Union Hall Place, just inside the city walls, tells the full story of Derry from its sixth-century foundation by St Columba through the plantation era, the 1689 siege, and the twentieth-century conflict. It won European Museum of the Year in 1993 and remains one of the best local history museums in Ireland.
The permanent collection covers the Spanish Armada — a galleon wrecked off the Donegal coast in 1588 was excavated and many of the finds are here — alongside the complex story of the city's creation as a plantation settlement and its subsequent centuries of sectarian division. The galleries on the Troubles are particularly well done, presenting the period without falling into the trap of presenting one narrative. Allow two to three hours.