It has emerged that the big yellow box, which has since been reduced in size, was painted by two men from Kildress for a laugh, and also to waste up yellow paint as they were getting paid by the stroke.

The two men, one of whom is married to a Derry woman, admitted they’d had a few drinks in them that morning, the day after Tyrone beat Donegal in the Championship. They revealed that at one stage they considered extending the yellow box halfway up the Glenshane ‘just to annoy the Derry ones’.

“Aye I’m disappointed to lose the job but we’d good fun watching the first few motorists trying to get their heads around the big box, from our cabin camera. At one stage there were about six cars driving along the kerb trying to avoid touching it. And we were getting paid by the stroke so it was a good pay-off.”

The culprits were caught that evening after falling asleep in a Portacabin around the corner, with their homemade CCTV still trained on the yellow box. They’d drunk three 6-packs of Carlsberg each.

Meanwhile, the Maghera Historical Society has asked people to come forward to share their memories of the days of the big yellow box.