Lough Swilly

Lough Swilly has a number of early Stone Age monuments and Iron Age fortifications along its shores, as well as a number of shell middens dated to approximately 7000 BC.^[11]

The lough, and the Grianán Ailigh hill fort (early fortification and palace dating from 2000 to 5000 BC) at its southeastern bend, were recorded on Ptolemy's map of the world.

Swilly was the departure point for the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607. This event, which followed a failed uprising in September 1607, saw Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (the last Gaelic chieftains in Ireland at that time), set sail from Rathmullan with ninety of their followers.^[12][13]

Due to its natural shelter and its depth, the lough was an important naval port. In October 1798, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, a French fleet carrying Wolfe Tone of the United Irishmen, plus troops to assist in 1798 rebellion, was intercepted and defeated in a naval battle at the entrance to Lough Swilly. Subsequently, Tone was captured and taken ashore at Buncrana on the east side of the Swilly.^[14]

A subsequent reassessment of the threat of invasion led to the building of a series of fortifications guarding the different approaches and landing points within the lough which were completed between 1800 and 1820.^[15] Martello towers were built around 1804 to defend the approaches to Derry. The six on the lough cost €1,800 each, were armed with smoothbore cannon, firing round shot and were completed in six months.^[16]

During a gale on 4 December 1811, the Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate HMS Saldanha was shipwrecked in Lough Swilly. There were no survivors out of the estimated 253 aboard, with approximately 200 bodies washed up on shore.^[17]

Immediately prior to World War I the War Office improved the Napoleonic forts and their armaments as well as adding another fort at the entrance to the lough at Lenan Head with 9-inch (23 cm) guns (12-mile range) – the largest in Ireland at the time. The remains of these fortifications are still at Lenan Head Fort, Fort Dunree (now a military and wildlife museum), Ned's Point, Buncrana, Inch Fort and on the west coast at Rathmullan, Knockalla and Macamish Point.^[18]

During the war, the lough was used by the Royal Navy as an anchorage for elements of the Grand Fleet, an amalgamation of the pre-war Home and Atlantic Fleets, under Admiral Sir John R. Jellicoe and a gathering/staging point for Atlantic convoys.^[19][20] During this period a boom was placed across the lough between Macamish Point and Ned's Point, supported by a number of trawlers, to prevent U-boat attacks.

After the Irish War of Independence the lough was one of the Treaty Ports specified in the Anglo-Irish Treaty until its final handing over at Fort Dunree in 1938.^[20] According to exhibits at Fort Dunree, during World War II Irish troops operated the guns there with explicit instructions to fire at any ship that might threaten Irish neutrality by entering the natural harbour. On one occasion in this period, a Royal Navy ship entered the lough and – while it did not initially respond to signals that it should turn back – left the area without any action being taken.^{[citation needed]}

The trains of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway served the area around Lough Swilly until 1953, when the company's trains were replaced by buses. These operated until 2014, when the company was closed down and liquidated.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lough Swilly.

• List of loughs in Ireland
• Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway