Posted online: Mar 12th, 2010

Letterkenny could be 400 years old next year – and this could be the basis for a year of celebrations and events that could really boost the town.
However, some uncertainty exists over exactly when the town was founded with varying opinions on what year saw the first real settlements.
The matter was raised at the monthly Town Council meeting by Cllr. Tadhg Culbert who felt that the 400th anniversary of the town should be “something special.”
“It could be good for the town, and for the people of the town,” he said, suggesting that they should be starting to look ahead for what could be a big event.
However, Mr. Ciaran Martin, Letterkenny Development Officer, replied that he had made some enquiries but the exact year of the town’s founding was “in dispute.”
It is widely accepted that no cluster of homes really existed until the Plantation of Ulster one thousand acres of land was granted to a Scotsman named Patrick Crawford between 1610 and 1611.
He was killed at the Seige of Dunyvegan in Isla, Scotland and Sir George Maybury married his widow. Sir George built a plantation, consisting of a bawn of clay and lime, sixty feet square and nine feet high and a house of stone and lime. Some historians credit Sir George as formally launching the town, but it may have been some time after 1611.
Nevertheless, there could still be calls for some form of celebrations next year.