placenames.ie
County

Derry

Doire

The county's rivers, plantation history and literary landscapes preserve several distinct local identities, alongside precisely recorded folk beliefs.

Recorded locationDerry54.95260° N · 6.88946° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Approximate recorded location · Logainm.ieOpen in OpenStreetMap ↗

The name

doire(oak-)wood, grove, thicket

These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.

An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.

Recorded forms

  • Doire · Irish · main form · validated name
  • Derry · English · main form

Place & story

Between Foyle and Bann

Lewis's 1837 county account places the territory between Lough Foyle, the Atlantic and County Antrim, with Tyrone to the south. He recalls the earlier name County Coleraine and the O'Cahan or O'Kane lordship in the Roe Valley. The historical county is larger than Derry city. Its coast, inland valleys and southern lough-side country supplied varied settings for settlement, farming and trade. [2]

People & connections

Seamus Heaney at Mossbawn

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 at Mossbawn, a family farm near Castledawson. HomePlace's biographical account follows his childhood there and at The Wood outside Bellaghy, and his schooling at Anahorish and St Columb's College in Derry. His connection with the county is both rural and urban. Later international recognition did not erase those beginnings: the landscapes and work he knew as a child remained important to his writing. [3]

Places behind the poems

HomePlace's Open Ground project identifies particular locations associated with Heaney's work, including the Moyola River, the Strand at Lough Beg, Magherafelt and Bellaghy Bawn. They also show how ordinary places—a riverbank, a bus station or ground used for grazing—can acquire significance through a writer's remembered experience. [4]

Folklore & tradition

Protection on Hallow Eve

Elizabeth Andrews's Ulster Folklore, published in 1913, records a belief she first encountered in the Roe Valley: oatmeal and salt were placed on children's heads on Hallow Eve to protect them from fairies. She also describes warnings near Dungiven against disturbing stones at an ancient site. [5]

Geographic information

Place type
County
County
Derry
Coordinates
54.95260, -6.88946 (approximate)
Mapped area
2,121.25 km²
Logainm ID
100011 ↗

People & family history

Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.

1926 census

This year is outside the available dataset’s coverage. This does not indicate a population of zero.

Explore this county

Up to 50 places per page, ordered by name.

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Derry. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. County Londonderry — Lewis,1837
  3. Seamus Heaney's life — Home Place
  4. Open Ground — Home Place
  5. Elizabeth Andrews, Ulster Folklore 1913, Giantsand Dwarfs, pp 96–97
  6. Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-04-08. How this page was prepared.