Strabane

On the Foyle facing Lifford across the water, so the border runs down the middle of the river. John Dunlap, who printed the American Declaration of Independence, is said to have learned the printing trade at Gray's Printing Press on Main Street.

Patrick's mission is said to have founded a church at Leckpatrick, the flagstone of Patrick, near Strabane, and St Colgan founded a monastery at Camus in 586. Vikings held the Foyle from 832 until Áed Findliath drove them out in 863. The Franciscans settled on what is now the old graveyard on St Patrick's Street in 1231. Scottish families settled the town in the early 1600s, and in 1608 Sir Cahir O'Doherty burned it, most of the inhabitants fleeing to Lifford.

Partition in 1921 put Strabane right on the border. In the Troubles the town hall was destroyed by a bomb in 1972, and in proportion to its size Strabane was once the most bombed town in Europe; at the height of the conflict it had the highest unemployment rate in the industrial world. Much of the town centre flooded in 1987.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Strabane ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

• Beltany stone circle · stone circle · 9 km
• Mongavlin Castle · castle · 8 km
• Raphoe Castle · castle · 10 km
• Stewart Castle, Northern Ireland · castle · 14 km
• Harry Avery's Castle · castle · 14 km

Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.

• Grianán of Aileach · The stone ring-fort of the Northern Uí Néill, 250 metres up above Lough Swilly, with terraces inside its walls for the assembled warriors of Ailech.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.