The Laggan of Donegal
On looking at a map of the county Donegal, it will be seen that the north-eastern part of the county, which is the most northerly part of Ireland is a peninsula washed on the eastern side by the waters of Lough Foyle and on the western by Lough Swilly. This is Inishowen, a mountainous and, to a large extend, a barren country. Immediately to the south of it is a fertile and comparatively flat country lying between the river Foyle and the upper reaches of lough Swilly, and extending in one direction from the City of Derry to Stranorlar, and in another from Lifford to Letterkenny. This is the district which in by-gone times was well and widely known under the name of THE LAGGAN, and formed the most productive and desirable portion of the ancient territory of Tyrconnell. Never having been at any time a county or fiscal division of any kind its boundaries were never accurately defined, but roughly speaking it might be said to correspond to the north Barony of Raphoe, running for a short distance, and its southern end into the south Barony.
In Tyrconnel, between two arms of the sea-that is, between the bat of Lough Foyle and the bay of Swilly’
The name would appear to be a very old one. It has been suggested, and not without good reason, that it is the place referred to by Ptolemy, a Greek writer who lived in the second century of the Christian era, and who wrote a description of the Western world, as the logia, and which in aftertimes is called Locha by the Irish, and Logan by the early English writers. This conjecture is corroborated, and , indeed made almost a certainty, by the fact that Ptolemy speaks of two large waters or rivers adjoining the logia, which he calls the Argita and the Vidua, the former of which antiquaries and geographers of by gone times regarded as the Finn or river of Lough Foyle and the latters as Lough Swilly. Colgan, in his’’acta’’, describes the Laggan as ‘’In Tir-conallia, interdue maris brachia, nempe inter sinum Loch FEBHUIL, ET SINUM DE Suilech’’. (In Tyrconnel, between two arms of the sea-that is, between the bat of Lough Foyle and the bay of Swilly’’.)
My Calwell or Caldwell family came to Maryland USA in the late? 1600’s. I look forward to a genealogy trip to your area.
My family, Bates, lived in Carnowen and GarrisonHill. The emigrated to Canada and NZ in the early 20th century. Oral history implies they and the interrelated families, Roulston, Orr, Colhoun, Fulton, Cooper, Thompson, came to the area in the 1600s.
My Orr family came from this area, Trentagh
My Grandfather was John George Orr Bates. It appears that he was named after a J.G.Orr whose family married into the Bates family. The families appear to have all lived in the area – Stranlor-Castlefinn-Raphoe (Carnowen).
My Patrick and Sarah Kerrigan Orr family came from this area also. They lived in Culdaff, Moneydarragh, Donegal.