Page "Ulster Scots dialects" Paragraph 17

Middle Scots inscription " Godis Providens Is My Inheritans " over the main entrance door leading to the tower in Ballygally Castle. Scots, mainly Gaelic-speaking, had been settling in Ulster since the 15th century, but large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200, 000, arrived during the 17th century following the 1610 Plantation, with the peak reached during the 1690s.

In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one.