Lough Swilly, County Donegal : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Lough Swilly. You may be able to find further references to Lough Swilly in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Swilly, Lough sea-lough Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Lough Swilly within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Arthur Young 1st to 10th August 1776: Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal 5
Arthur Young 21st to 31st July 1776: Down, Armagh and Antrim 1
Arthur Young Sections 20-21: Revenue, Taxes; Commerce, Fisheries, Embargoes 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Buncrana 0 2
Killygarvan 0 2
Rathmullan 0 2
Fahan 1 2
Desertegny 0 2
Fahan Lower 0 1
Inch 5 2
Mintiaghs 0 1
Burt 0 2
Aughnish 0 1
Tullyfern 0 2
Clondavaddog 0 2
Millford 0 1
Foyle 0 2
Inishowen 4 1
Ramelton 0 2
Clonmany 0 2
Newtown Cunningham 0 2
All Saints 0 2
Muff 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Lough Swilly. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
LOCH SWILLY Arthur Young A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780).
LOUGH SWILLY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
SWILLY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
SWILLY LOUGH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.