Donegal tweed manufactured for centuries it took on its modern form in the 1880s, largely due to the pioneering work of English philanthropist Alice Rowland Hart. While the weavers in County Donegal produce a number of different tweed fabrics, including herringbone and check patterns, the area is best known for a plain-weave cloth of differently-coloured warp and weft, with small pieces of yarn in various colours woven in at irregular intervals to produce a heathered effect. Such fabric is often labelled as "donegal" (with a lowercase "d") regardless of its provenance. Along with Harris Tweed manufactured in the Scottish Highlands, Donegal is
County Donegal County Donegal County Donegal (; ) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal () in the south of the county. Donegal County Council is the local council and Lifford the county town. The population was 159,192 at the 2016 census. It has also been known as (County) Tyrconnell (""), after the historic territory of the same name. In terms of size and area, it is the largest county in Ulster and the fourth-largest county in all of Ireland. Uniquely, County Donegal shares a small border with only one other