The plantations is the name given to the English efforts from the 1500s to colonise Ireland through settlement. This meant that English rulers gave English and Scottish people land in Ireland that they could use for themsleves. Then the King would have loyal subjects in Ireland that he could trust more than the native Irish. Although plantations took place throughout Ireland, the largest one happened in Ulster. This was because Ulster rebelled very strongly against English rule and was difficult to control.

The problem with the plantations was that many native Irish people had their lands taken away to make room for the settlers. Naturally, they felt a sense of injustice against the colonisers. This policy sowed the seeds for the troubles over the ownership of the land of Ireland, which have only begun to be settled properly in the last twenty years.  

The land around Finn Valley was very rich, so Stranorlar was chosen as an important town in the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century.