Plantation of Ulster

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: Plantin o Ulstèr) was the organised colonisation (plantation) of Ulster – a province of Ireland – by people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the colonists came from Scotland and England. Small private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while the official plantation began in 1609. An estimated half a million acres (2,000 km²) spanning counties Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine and Armagh, was confiscated from Gaelic chiefs, most of whom had fled Ireland for mainland Europe in the 1607 Flight of the Earls. Most of counties Antrim and Down were privately colonised. Colonising Ulster with loyal settlers was seen as a way to prevent further rebellion, as it had been the region most resistant to English control during the preceding century.

King James wanted the Plantation to be "a civilising enterprise" that would settle Protestants in Ulster, a land that was mainly Gaelic-speaking and of the Catholic faith. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Chichester, also saw the Plantation as a scheme to anglicise the Irish. Accordingly, the colonists (or "British tenants") were required to be English-speaking and Protestant. Some of the undertakers and colonists however were Catholic and it has been suggested that a significant number of the Scots spoke Gaelic. The Scottish colonists were mostly Presbyterian and the English mostly members of the Church of England. The Plantation of Ulster was the biggest of the Plantations of Ireland.

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