Old Map of Ulster by John Speed, 1611

John Speed’s Ulster: A Province at a Turning Point

John Speed’s map bears the original title The Province Ulster Described. The copperplate is dated 1610 and the map first appeared in Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, published in 1611–12. The atlas was the first great printed collection devoted to the individual counties and provinces of Britain and Ireland. Speed compiled its maps from existing surveys and other geographical sources, while much of the engraving was undertaken in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius.

The Ulster shown here is the historic Irish province, not the later political territory of Northern Ireland. It comprises nine counties: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and the county identified on the map as Colrane. Six are now within Northern Ireland, while Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan form part of the Republic of Ireland. The engraving also extends into County Louth along Ulster’s south-eastern approaches.

The use of “County Colrane” is especially revealing. The older county took its name from Coleraine and had not yet been reorganised as County Londonderry under the royal charter of 1613. Elsewhere the map preserves numerous early spellings and anglicised forms of Irish names. These make it rewarding for local and family-history research, although they should not always be interpreted as exact equivalents of modern boundaries or settlements.

Lough Neagh dominates the centre of the province, with the Rivers Bann, Blackwater and other waterways connecting the interior to the coast. To the west lie the two great expanses of Lough Erne, while Donegal’s deeply indented Atlantic shoreline contrasts with the eastern coast around Carrickfergus and Belfast Lough. Mountains are represented pictorially, and towns, castles, woods, rivers and islands are distinguished by carefully engraved symbols.

The map appeared during a decisive period in Ulster’s history. The Nine Years’ War had ended in 1603 with the defeat of the Gaelic alliance led principally by Hugh O’Neill and Hugh Roe O’Donnell. The Flight of the Earls in 1607 was followed by the Crown’s programme for the Plantation of Ulster, which began formally in 1609. Land was redistributed among English and Scottish settlers, London companies and loyal Irish landowners, bringing lasting changes to settlement, government, landholding, religion and culture.

Speed’s map is therefore often associated with the Plantation, but it was not simply a new survey made to document that scheme. Much of its geographical information was inherited from earlier Elizabethan mapping and could already have been several decades old when the plate was engraved. It is best understood as a published English view of Ulster at the moment when the province was entering a profound political transformation.

The inset entitled “Enis Kelling Fort” gives Enniskillen unusual prominence. Its castle occupied a commanding position between Upper and Lower Lough Erne and controlled important routes through Fermanagh. The stronghold changed hands during the conflicts of the 1590s and became a powerful symbol of military control in western Ulster. Rather than presenting a peaceful town prospect, Speed chose a fortified site whose recent strategic importance would have been readily understood by contemporary viewers.

Around the map are the visual features for which Speed became famous. The ornamental title cartouche incorporates an Irish harp, while sailing ships and a sea creature enliven the surrounding waters. Original impressions were printed from the copperplate in black ink. Colour was applied separately by hand, either for an early purchaser or, in many surviving examples, by a later colourist.