St Augustine's Church of Ireland, the building you see now, was built in 1872 but the site it stands on is believed to have been connected to religious worship for hundreds of years before. Some claim that it is the site of an ancient monastic Church founded by Columba himself, the patron saint of Derry/Londonderry, in the 6th century.
In the 1600's the "Church of God in the Cittie of Derry" stood there, used by the plantation settlers from Britain and it saw some of the most turbulent scenes of that time. In fact during the Seige of Derry the Jacobite Army surrounding the city fired its terms of surrender for the inhabitants, encased in a cannonball, which landed in the Church grounds. The terms were rejected and the siege broken after 105 days.
In the 1970s a nearby statue to one of the major characters on the Williamite side of the Siege, the Rev. George Walker, was destroyed by a bomb but the plinth remains in place with an inscription upon it to the Apprentice Boys of Derry and surrounded by ceremonial cannon.
But now the Church stands amidst generally more settled times. It is a lovely place to visit and in fact one of its famous visitors was head of the Scouting Movement, Lord Baden Powell who came to the Church in 1915 to deliver a sermon. He too may have enjoyed the spectacular views from the walls it stands on, across the city and on to Donegal.