3,722 in 1901) decreases less seriously than in most Irish counties,
though the proportion of emigrants is large. About 78% of the population
is Roman Catholic, and almost the whole is rural. The native Erse
naturally dies out slowly in this remote county, and the Donegal dialect
is said to be the purest in the Irish language. The towns are small in
extent and importance. Lifford (pop. 446), the county town, is
practically a suburb of Strabane, in the neighbouring Co. Tyrone.
Ballyshannon (2359) on the river Erne, Letterkenny (2370) at the head of
Lough Swilly, and Donegal (1214) at the head of the bay of that name,
are the other principal towns. The principal watering-places are Moville
on Lough Foyle, Buncrana and Rathmelton on Lough Swilly; while,
following the coast from north to south, Rosapenna, Dunfanaghy,
Gweedore, Dungloe and Ardara, with Bundoran in the extreme south, are
seaside villages frequently visited. Resorts deserving mention for the
attractive scenery for which they are centres, are--Ardara, on the
Owenea river, where the cliffs of the neighbouring coast are
particularly fine; Carrick, Malin Head, the beautiful land-locked bay of
Mulroy, Narin on Boylagh Bay, Portsalon on Lough Swilly, and Stranorlar,
a small market town near the fine mountain pass of Barnesmore.

Donegal contains seven baronies and fifty parishes. Assizes are held at
Lifford, and quarter sessions at Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Donegal,
Cardonagh, Glenties, Letterkenny and Lifford. The county is in the
Protestant dioceses of Clogher and Derry, and the Roman Catholic
dioceses of Raphoe, Clogher and Derry. The county returned twelve
members to the Irish parliament; after the Union it returned two; but it
is now divided into north, east, south and west divisions, each
returning one member.

_History and Antiquities._--The greater part of Donegal was anciently
called Tyrconnell (q.v.) or the country of Conall; and it was sometimes
called O'Donnell's country, after the head chieftains of the district.
This district was formed into the county of Donegal in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, in 1585, by the lord-deputy Sir John Perrott. The most
noteworthy architectural remains of antiquity in the county are to be
found at the head of Lough Swilly, where, situated on the summit of a
hill 802 ft. high, some remarkable remains exist of a fortress or palace
of the northern Irish kings. These are known as the Grianan of Aileach,
and evidently date from