Greysteel or Gresteel is a village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It lies to the east of Derry and to the west of Limavady on the main A2 coast road between Limavady and Derry, overlooking Lough Foyle. In the 2021 Census it had a population of 1,418 people. It is situated within Causeway Coast and Glens district.
History The village lies mostly within the townlands of Gresteel More and Gresteel Beg. The name "Greysteel" may be a part-translation of the Irish Glas-stiall, meaning "grey strip (of land)", and the Placenames Database of Ireland gives this as the Irish name of the village. An older English name for the area was "Glasteele".
The Troubles During the Troubles, nine people were killed in the Greysteel area: On 14 November 1976, Jim Loughrey was shot dead by loyalists at his home. On 30 October 1993, members of the Ulster Defence Association carried out a mass shooting at the Rising Sun public house, killing eight civilians. This became known as the Greysteel massacre.
Features
Places of interest Nearby Faughanvale Old church dates back to the medieval period and is dedicated to Saint Canice.
Transport The village is adequately served in terms of public transport and City of Derry Airport is located 4 km to the west.
Sport Faughanvale GAC is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club.
2001 Census Greysteel is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with a population between 1,000 and 2,250 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 1,229 people living in Greysteel. Of these: 25.4% were aged under 16 years and 11.7% were aged 60 and over 50.2% of the population were male and 49.8% were female 96.6% were from a Catholic background and 2.9% were from a Protestant background 0.8% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.
For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service
See also List of towns and villages in Northern Ireland
References