The Garden and St.Columb's Stone
The Walled Garden Belmont House was famous for its beautiful walled garden with fruit trees, flower beds, and colourful bushes. It must have been like The Secret Garden. The school pupils used to grow flowers and vegetables in the garden. There was a mini farm too with sheep, cows, horses, goats, hens, pheasants, ducks, geese, peacocks and rabbits. Now some of the garden is covered in classroom huts but we still have some of the nice old trees and bushes left. We wish that the trees could talk and tell us more about life in Belmont long ago. 
St. Columb's Stone
At the back of Belmont House where the vegetable garden used to be, lies a very important piece of history. It is called St. Columb's Stone and it is at least 1500 years old, probably older . All the children use it as a wishing stone and many of our wishes come true.
We could not find out for sure how long the stone has been in our school grounds. We know that it was marked on an old map of Derry in 1688. Our teacher found an old book in her attic called the Book of lnishowen by H. Swan. It was published in 1938 and it had a picture of our stone on the first page and some information.
We know that it was the crowning stone of the chieftains and kings of Ulster. It was probably brought to Belmont from Grianan of Aileach in Co. Donegal after the castle was destroyed in 11o1. The stone is very big and must be very heavy. It is about 2 metres x 1.5 metres. It is supposed to be shaped like a pear under the ground and to weigh about 7 tons. We don't know why it is in Belmont maybe a chieftain or king lived here.
