Laurel VillaTownhouse

Laurel Villa is a Victorian townhouse on Church Street in Magherafelt, built in 1874 for linen merchant William John Derby and later home in turn to a doctor, a parish priest and a vet before Mary Kielt bought it in 1961 and began taking in guests. Her son Eugene now runs it with his wife Gerardine, and the house is marketed as Northern Ireland's only poetry-themed guest house, built around its connection to Seamus Heaney, whose uncle Hugh farmed nearby and whose family bought produce from the same warehouses. Original medical and veterinary artefacts from the building's past occupants remain on display. Alongside bed and breakfast rooms, the Kielts run guided tours tracing Heaney's home ground and help guests researching family history in the area. It remains a single, family-operated guest house rather than part of any group.