Donegal

Donegal. 1. An Irish county on the sea-coast in the province of Ulster, having the Atlantic Ocean on the north and west. It has a length of 84 miles with a greatest breadth of 41 miles, and its area is 1,870 square miles, while the bold and broken coast is 166 miles in extent, and is studded with islands large and small. Tory Island, at the entrance of Lough Swilly, has the remains of seven churches, two stone crosses, and a round tower, and on an island in Lough Derg is a noted pilgrim resort called St. Patrick's Purgatory. The surface is much diversified by mountains, moors, bogs, lakes, and rivers; the largest river being the Foyle with a north-east course of 16 miles into Loch Foyle, and the largest lake Loch Derg. The greatest height is 2,462 feet. The climate is moist, and at times rough, owing to the prevalence of north and north-west winds. The county produces much granite, and there are quarries of freestone and white marble. The chief industries are fishing, and the manufactures of woollens, worsted, muslin, and kelp. The trade is carried on mostly through Londonderry. Lifford is the county town. The greater proportion of the population is Roman Catholic. The county returns four members to Parliament. The mountain population is said to be descended from the old Irish clans, but the lowlands are peopled by the descendants of those planted there in 1612 by James I. The O'Donels were once princes of Tyrconnel, which comprised part of Donegal, and besides many ruins of castles, forts, and religious houses, there are near Lough Swilly the remains of a palace of the North Irish kings, and near Derry is their coronation stone. There are also memorials of St. Columba.

2. A seaport town of Ireland, in Donegal Bay, on a creek at the mouth of the Eske, in the south of county Donegal, 157 miles north-west of Dublin. The town is in an alluvial plain surrounded on three sides by hills rising into mountains. The district produces corn and butter, and a railway communicates with the city and port of Londonderry. The remains of Donegal Castle are to be seen on the river, and on the shore are the ruins of a fifteenth-century Franciscan monastery. In the neighbourhood are some mineral springs.