Plantation of Ulster - Implementing The Plantation

Implementing The Plantation

Scottish settlers had been migrating to Ulster for many centuries. Highland Gaelic Scottish mercenaries known as Gallowglass had been doing so since the 15th century and Presbyterian lowland Scots had been arriving since around 1600. From 1606 there was substantial lowland Scots settlement on disinhabited land in north Down, led by Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton. In 1607 Sir Randall MacDonnell settled 300 Presbyterian Scots families on his land in Antrim.

From 1609 onwards, "British" Protestant immigrants arrived in Ulster through direct importation by undertakers to their estates and also by a spread to unpopulated areas, through ports such as Londonderry and Carrickfergus. In addition there was much internal movement of settlers who did not like the original land allotted to them. Most planters settled on uninhabited and unexploited land, often building up their farms and homes on overgrown terrain that has been variously described as “wilderness” and “virgin” ground.

By 1622, a survey found there were 6,402 "British" adult males on Plantation lands, of whom 3,100 were English and 3,700 Scottish – indicating a total adult planter population of around 12,000. However another 4,000 Scottish adult males had settled in unplanted Antrim and Down, giving a total settler population of about 19,000.

Despite the fact that the Plantation had decreed that the Irish population be displaced, this did not generally happen in practice. Firstly, some 300 native landowners who had taken the English side in the Nine Years War were rewarded with land grants. Secondly, the majority of the Gaelic Irish remained in their native areas, but often on worse land than before the plantation. They usually lived close to and even in the same townlands as the Protestant settlers. The main reason for this was that Undertakers could not import enough English or Scottish tenants to fill their agricultural workforce and had to fall back on Irish tenants. However in a few heavily populated lowland areas (such as parts of north Armagh) it is likely that some population displacement occurred.

However, the Plantation remained threatened by the attacks of bandits, known as "wood-kerne", who were often Irish soldiers or dispossessed landowners. In 1609, Chichester had 1,300 former Gaelic soldiers deported from Ulster to serve in the Swedish Army. Not all of the wood kernes' activity targeted the planters however, as they sometimes "robbed and murdered Catholic and Protestant alike". As a result, military garrisons were established across Ulster and many of the Plantation towns, notably Derry, were fortified. The settlers were also required to maintain arms and attend an annual military 'muster'.

There had been very few towns in Ulster before the Plantation. Most modern towns in the province can date their origins back to this period. Plantation towns generally have a single broad main street ending in a square – often known as a "diamond", The Diamond, Donegal being an attractive example.