'In the entry of Loch Foyle is a sand called the Tonnes;
go in on the north west side of the Tonnes, hard abroad
the shore; but bring tide with you; it flows there east,
and by south-west and by north.'

Near the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Mountjoy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, determined to break the power of the Earl of Tirone and O Donnell, by establishing forts and garrisons in their rear on Loch Foyle and at Ballyshannon.

In the State Papers for Ireland for 1600 is described:

'Greencastle, seated in O Dohertie's country, within four miles after you have entered the Lough. It stands within good musket shot of the channel, but cannot be made of any strength to land-ward. It is all ruined, and not much material to be re-built, though it might a little annoy the ships that should come by it.

' In May 1600 Sir Henry Docwra sailed into Loch Foyle with a fleet of sixty-nine sail: 'With a small resistance they took Newcastle, and other places upon the mouth of the river, which country they much despoiled and wasted.' One of the English captains wrote to Sir Robert Cecil that 'Sir Henry Docwra hath placed a ward of 60 soldiers, with a lieutenant, in the castle which I shewed your lordships to be so dangerous, at the entrance to the Lough.'

In spite of sticking on a sand-bank for twenty-four hours, Docwra praised the River Foyle as 'one of the fairest and most fitting for navigation of any, not only in Ireland, but of most countries which I have seen.' When the right channel was found they sailed up close to the castle of Culmore,and landed without much opposition. The castle was in a bad state of repair, and it took Docwra six days to fortify it. When this was done, he marched to Derry, and in order to re-build the city, he had to send two ship-loads of soldiers to coast along the shore for twenty miles, and whenever they found any houses, to bring away the timber, and any other materials. Finding the O Kane country, on the south side of the Loch, too well protected, Docwra sent out a force of men, who,'marching' all night put ouer at Greencastle surprised the unfortunate herds of the O Kanes, and returned with "100 cows, which they put abord theire boats, besides what the Souldiers brought away kil'd."' Greencastle must have been a large fishing village, with a good number of boats, as Docwra had only the use of one barge, out of three brought over.

Sir John Óg O Doherty died in 1601; there was a family dispute over the succession, and Cahir, Sir John's young son, was brought over to the English by his fosterers, the McDevitts of Burt, and Inishowen was separated from Tír Conaill.

In the same year the Irish were defeated at Kinsale, and six years later, the Earls of Tirone and Tirconnell, with many of their relatives and the leading chiefs of the North, set sail from Rathmullan on Loch Swilly, to die in exile in Rome.

Cahir O Doherty was knighted by James I, and granted 'the manors, lordships, castles (except the castle of Culmore). messuages, lands and advowsons, and all other hereditaments whatever in Ilagh, Couliemore, Newcastle, Insie, Bartie, and Fame, in the country called Incheon, Insheon, or Inishowen, or within the country called O Dohertie's country.' He married Mary Preston, daughter of Lord Gormanstown, senior English lord of the Pale.

A year or two later a fierce quarrel arose between Paulet, the new Governor of Derry, and Sir Cahir, in which the former is supposed to have struck the young Irish chief in the face. O Doherty retired to his castle of Buncrana, raised an army of supporters, and marched on Culmore. He took this, by guile, from the commander, Captain Hart, and went on to Derry, where he killed Paulet, and burnt most of the city, including Bishop Montgomery's library. But he was pursued by Sir Arthur Chichester, and it was not long before he was killed. He was only 21 years old when he died, and was the last O Doherty chief to rule Inishowen, which was now cleared by the English, with 'the town and castles ... as also the White Castle, the Red Castle and Greencastle.'

The entire territory of Inishowen was not granted to Sir Arthur Chichester, with power 'to enjoy free warren and chace in all the woods and lands, and to make parks; liberty to divide the same into several precincts each containing 2,000 acres at least, and to give them several names, that each might become a distinct manor, and to set apart 500 acres in each for a demesne, and within seven years to build upon some part thereof a castle, or a capital messuage; to make free tenants, and to pursue the instructions of plantation in Ulster.'

But Chichester was Lord Deputy of Ireland, and free to do what he liked, so he did not plant the whole of Inishowen with settlers, but left many Irish tenants, and leased land to Englishmen along the shores of Lochs Swilly and Foyle; Harts at Culmore, Carys at Redcaste, and Vaughan at Buncrana. The manor of Greencastle was let to William Newton, with six quarters of land - Ballymacarthur, Fartrom, Crehue, Balleylehan, Caron, Rassen and Shrone - and his descendants continued to live there in 1665.

In the grant to Chichester mention is made of a licence to hold a court leet and a court baron at Greencastle, as well as at Inch, Buncranagh and Elagh, also a market, and fairs on 1st October and 2nd April, rent for all these being 13/4 Ir. He had the power to nominate a bailiff in the tuogh of Greencastle. Tuath was a Gaelic term for a small division of land which could be ruled over by a king or a chief. In 1621 the market of Greencastle was moved to Glencrow, near Moville.

He had also a grant of '2/6 a day for gunner, and 8d. each for 10 warders in the Castle of Greencastle, together with the command and entertainment of all such wardes as shall be thought fit to be entertained there.' But the day of the Norman castle was over, though in 1623, in the 'Reports of Forts,' it was deemed fitter as a fort than Culmore.

Just before Chichester became the owner of Inishowen a grant was made to an Englishman called John Brown, to establish a ferry' at or near the Greencastle in Inishowen, Donegal Co. between said Greencastle and the point of land called the Currane in Tyrone Co. over the lough or arm of the sea called Lough Foyle - which being so established, the King demised the same to him, with power to take for the fare or passage at Greencastle, for every man 3d; for every horse or cow 6d; for every horse load 2d; for every sheep 1d; and so ratebly for small cattle - rent 10s. Ir. To hold for 21 years, for the fine of £51 Ir.' In 1611 there is a report to the effect that this ferry was 'unprovided of any means of passage either man or beast, by the said John Brown, or his assignees.'

In a survey of the County of Donegal at Lifford in 1608, there is an account of the different baronies, and a very interesting list of the quarterlands of Inishowen is given; mention is made of 'A fishinge for salmon also for linge in the bay or creek of Newcastle.

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