A total of 20 properties will offer free entry across the weekend, with many also enhancing the visitor experience with living history tours.
Among the more unusual is a tour of The Bridewell in Magherafelt, where visitors will be brought back to experience the building’s original use as a courthouse and gaol in the early 1800s, and have the chance to see the original cells and participate in activities in the exercise yard.
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Visitors will travel back in time too in Ballygawley at the family home of the Simpsons, the ancestors of Ulysses Simpson Grant, General and 18 President of the United States of America, where the history of the period will be re-created in costumes and stories.
Walking in the footsteps of those emigrants who left Maghera and famine stricken Ireland on the Emigrant Walk up Carntogher Mountain is another history-filled experience, as is the Famine and Folklore tour by Friel’s in Swatragh, where visitors can see an original and authentic famine pot and taste the nettle soup served to the starving.
The open days are a once-a-year opportunity for curious families, architect lovers, and heritage enthusiasts to explore buildings and exclusive sites that are rarely open to the public.
