The Plantation of Ulster Resettles Six Counties
Confiscated Gaelic land is handed to English and Scottish settlers, redrawing the north for good
Quick facts
- Official scheme published
- Early 1609
- Counties affected
- Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine/Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone
- Land confiscated
- c. 500,000 acres
- Scottish settlers by 1630
- c. 16,000
What happened
Following the earls' flight and the confiscation of their estates, the English crown published the official plantation scheme for Ulster in early 1609. Six of the historic province's nine counties, Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine (later Londonderry), Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone, passed into crown hands, an estimated half a million acres of arable land. The land was divided into precincts and estates of 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 acres, deliberately kept smaller than earlier plantations to prevent any one settler, or undertaker, from becoming too powerful, and granted mainly to new landowners of English and Scottish origin. Growth was slower than planners intended; by 1630 there may have been only around 16,000 Scottish settlers in Ulster and fewer of English origin, since North America was drawing away many would-be emigrants. Scottish settlement concentrated in north Antrim, north-east Down, east Donegal, and north-west Tyrone, while English settlers were more numerous in Londonderry, south Antrim, and north Armagh.
Why it matters
The Plantation of Ulster created the Protestant settler population and land pattern that would define Northern Ireland's sectarian geography for the next four centuries, laying the groundwork for divisions that reemerged violently during the Troubles of the late 20th century.
How we know
The 1609 plantation scheme, its county allocations, and settler numbers are documented in crown survey records, plantation commissioners' reports, and settlement patterns traced by Irish and Ulster historians from land grant and census records of the period.
Sources
- History Ireland. After the Flight: the Plantation of Ulster · General sourcehistoryireland.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Ulster Historical Foundation. The Plantation of Ulster · General sourceulsterhistoricalfoundation.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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