Boundary Marker, near junction with Eastway, Lone Moor Road, Derry, BT48 9EW

Boundary Marker, c.1840

This post once formed part of a series marking the municipal borough boundary of Londonderry as it existed prior to 1864. The faceplate has broken off, but comparison with the only other surviving post of its kind suggests it originally bore a small oval plaque inscribed with the initials 'B.B.', presumed to stand for 'Borough Boundary'.

The exact date of installation is uncertain, but the post was likely erected following the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act of 1840, which required that within six calendar months of the first election of a Mayor under the Act, permanent and conspicuous boundary marks of iron, wood, stone or other durable material be set up in the most public and convenient places along the line of the municipal metes and bounds. The Act came into operation in the city in October 1841, and the new Mayor, Connolly McCausland Lecky, was elected in December; accordingly, posts marking the Corporation's jurisdiction would have been required to be in place by mid-1842.

The boundary line is marked on the Ordnance Survey six-inch county series map of 1853, crossing close to this location, though the posts themselves are not shown. The post is specifically marked for the first time on the larger-scale Ordnance Survey town plan of 1873, lying along what was by then the 'old municipal boundary', the city limits having been expanded in 1864. Comparison with the modern map suggests the post originally stood a short distance west of its present location. It was undoubtedly relocated due to substantial development at the end of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, though the precise date of repositioning cannot be determined as it does not appear on later maps.

The post was originally observable from all sides but is now set into a recess within a low retaining wall, which may explain its absence from recent maps. It is one of only two surviving posts from the original city boundary; the other stands in the north-east of the city near Dungiven Road.