County Coleraine

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County Coleraine (Irish: Contae Chúil Raithin) formed one of the counties of Ireland from 1585 to 1613. Of all the original counties of Ireland, the administration abolished only County Coleraine prior to reorganisations in the twentieth century.

[edit] Foundation and extent

Sir John Perrot, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, established County Coleraine between the Rivers Bann and Foyle in 1585 during the reign of Elizabeth I. Sir John intended administering the new county from the town of Coleraine. In the event, the English authorities built the courthouse and jail for the new establishment at Desertmartin in the adjacent county of Tyrone.

[edit] Towards a new county

English control of the territory remained nominal, so in 1607 the Government confiscated almost the entire county from its Irish aristocratic feudal owners, and in 1609 gave it to the City of London Corporation and its livery companies, who received instructions to undertake its plantation.

The area for planting included:

• the entirety of County Coleraine
• the barony of Loughinsholin which comprised the then north of County Tyrone and the environs of Coleraine in County Antrim, together called O'Cahan's Country
• a small area of County Donegal around Lough Foyle

In 1613, this larger area became incorporated into the newly-founded County Londonderry, with its county town in new walled city of Londonderry (also founded in 1613) on the west bank of the Foyle, opposite the destroyed town of Derry.