Fanad (official name: Fánaid)[2] is a peninsula that lies between Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay on the north coast of County Donegal, Ireland.

In the 16th century, during the time of the MacSuibhnes as rulers of Fanad, it was stated that the territory of Fanaid stretched as far south as the River Lennon between Kilmacrennan and Ramelton.

Family names commonly recorded in Fanad since the mid-19th century include Blake, Callaghan, Cannon/Canning, Carr/Kerr, Coll, Coyle, Deeney, Doherty, Friel, Fealty, Gallagher, Martin, McAteer/McIntyre, McConigley/McGonigle, McGinley/McKinley, Shiels/Shields and Sweeney/McSwyne.

[6] Geological maps of County Donegal show rock alignments running south-west to north east across the Fanad peninsula.

The landscape of Fanad has been shaped by geological processes which include the effects of periodic covering with ice sheets and glaciers as recently as 14,000 years ago.

The peat outcrops on the foreshore at White Strand north of Rathmullan contain the remainder of trees which were submerged by the advance of the sea in this area.

In common with much of the rest of Ireland, the post-glacial landscape gradually changed with rises in temperature from open tundra to one dominated by forests of pine, oak, alder, hazel and birch, with breaks in the canopy on the edges of the intervening expanses of lake and bog.

The subsequent evolution of the landscape in Fanad probably owes more to human intervention than to natural forces, reflecting the shift from visits by Mesolithic hunters, fishers and gatherers to the introduction of primitive farming during the Neolithic period from 4,000 BC onwards.

There are also portal tombs or dolmens from the Neolithic period including examples at Gortnavern south of Kerrykeel and above Saltpans on the Lough Swilly side of the peninsula.

Several cist burial sites which are thought to date from the Bronze Age were discovered in Fanad including a now destroyed group at a cairn at Killycolman near Rathmullan.

[11] Ring forts (Cashels) and ornately carved stonework are features of Iron Age Donegal (500 BC – 400 AD) including such major monuments as Grianan Aileach.

[16] With the reduction of power of the Cenel Conaill, the territory of Fanad came under the control of the O'Breslins who were descended from Congel Cennemigher's son.

Settlers noted in the 1654 Civil Survey include Richard Perkins at BelliclanmcCallen (sic), William and David Lyne at Bunintyne (Bunnaton?

and Magherawarden, Thomas Stewart at Carlan, Knockbrack and Drumfad, William Patton at Croghan, Colin and Patrick Campbell at Moross and Luke Ashe at Ballyhork.

[22] Improvements in local infrastructure and facilities during the early part of the 19th century included the construction of a lighthouse at Fanad Head in 1818 in response to the sinking of the frigate HMS Saldanah in Lough Swilly in 1804.

This parish, which comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 27,367¼: statute acres, of which 627¾ are water, is situated on the north-western coast; it comprehends the greater part of the peninsular district of Fannet, or Fanad, extending northward into the ocean, and terminating in the points called Maheranguna and Pollacheeny.

The surface is for the most part occupied by mountains of considerable altitude, among which Knockalla is 1196 feet above the level of the sea: these are separated by deep and narrow vales, of which the soil is tolerably good, consisting of a brown gravelly mould, sometimes inclining to clay, on a basis of white gravel, brownish or reddish clay, slate of various colours, and sometimes soft freestone rock.

The existence of picturesque seascapes induced many local landowners to site "big houses" in parkland settings overlooking Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay.

In the first half of the century, many landowners began to introduce "improvements" to their holdings which effectively saw the end of the clachans and the old ways of farming based around the old Rundale system.

The farm landscape of Fanad as we know it today, with small individual holdings and regularised boundaries was imposed from the 1830s onwards, often against the wishes of the tenant farmers.

[25] The introduction of these "improvements" saw the demise of some major centres of population in Fanad including the well established large villages of Doaghbeg and Glinsk.

Rural tourism emerged about this time – Fanad features in an 1849 traveller's guide[26] which notes, inter alia, that There are a few more romantic spots than Ramelton and its vicinity.

Ramelton contains some good houses and two small inns at which cars can be hired...... Rathmullan, in its single street, church, battery and some vestiges of ecclesiastical and castellated ruins offers but little to arrest the attention of the traveller...Milford contains one or two public houses, a few shops, some respectable dwellings and in its vicinity a union workhouse.....The village of Rosnakill will not detain the traveller, it chiefly consists of poor cabins but it contains the parish church, some small retail shops and one or two public houses.......A good inn at Ballyvicstocker, one of the most lovely of all our sea bays and which is admirably suited to bathing, and where B. Barton Esq., the proprietor of the Greenfort Estate and one or two others have built comfortable villas, together with good roads from Ramelton and Rathmullan would tend to induce strangers to visit Fanad.

By c. 1858, schools had been established in a number of locations including Ballymichael, Doaghbeg, Ballyhiernan, Cashel Glebe, Tullyconnell, Croaghross, Leatbeg, Ballina, Muineagh, Drumfad and Glenvar.

Employment outside of agriculture was very limited, leading to continuing high levels of migration both permanent and seasonal, some overseas to the UK and to the US, and some to cities in Ireland including Derry and to a lesser extent, Belfast and Dublin.