Hey everyone! Welcome to my sixth in a series of travel blogs about the adventures I have gone on, as poet in residence at Belfast Grand Central Station and places you can travel to as well from the station.
A journey into poetry, memory, and the landscapes that shaped a literary giant
“If you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way.”
That quote by Seamus Heaney has travelled with me—through poems, freelance life, and all the buses and trains I’ve taken to lead creative writing workshops across Northern Ireland and beyond. And of all the places I’ve visited, there’s one that feels like a second home. Bellaghy. The birthplace of Heaney himself.
As poet-in-residence at Belfast Grand Central Station, I spend a lot of time thinking about movement—how stories travel, how places shape us, and how poetry can anchor us even as we move. Today, I’m writing this from the HomePlace Café in The Seamus Heaney HomePlace, which was recently named one of the Top 50 Museum Cafés in the UK by The Guardian. And rightly so—the coffee is great, the atmosphere is calm, and the walls are filled with words.
For the past six years, I’ve been making the journey from Belfast to Bellaghy for poetry workshops. It’s a beautiful trip, especially in spring when the fields start to wake up. You begin at Stand 7 in Belfast Grand Central Station and hop on the 212 to Derry~Londonderry. After about 45 minutes, you’ll reach Castledawson Park & Ride—right beside a KFC but also surrounded by peaceful fields. If you’re lucky and early, you might catch the sunrise behind the field facing the bus stop and the little telephone box.
From there, you take the 127 townland bus through Portglenone to Ballymena. It’s only about ten minutes to Bellaghy, and the countryside along the way is stunning—rolling fields, quiet roads, and the kind of scenery that shaped Heaney’s poetry. Keep an eye out to the right: when you see a church steeple, press the bell and you’ll be dropped off right outside The Taphouse. The Heaney HomePlace is just across the road.
The exhibition inside is exceptional. You walk through Heaney’s life and work, listening to his voice as he reads his poems. There’s a beautiful library where you can sit and reflect, and a gift shop where you can pick up a few mementos of your visit. It’s a space that invites you to slow down, to listen, and to write.
Bellaghy itself holds more than just the museum. According to the HomePlace website, there are five ‘Open Ground’ locations—places that shaped Heaney’s early years and inspired his writing. One I always recommend is The Strand at Lough Beg. It’s a boardwalk through the countryside, with stop-points where you can press a button and hear Heaney read his poem “The Strand at Lough Beg.” The views are breathtaking, and the sounds of birds and breeze feel like part of the poem.
When it’s time to head home, you just cross the road, catch the bus back to Castledawson Park & Ride, and hop on the 212 to Belfast. The whole journey takes less than an hour, but it always leaves me feeling like I’ve travelled much further—into memory, into poetry, into the heart of what it means to write.
Bellaghy is closer than you think — and the Journey Planner makes the route simple to follow.
