The Burning of Derry took place on 19 April 1608 during O'Doherty's Rebellion when Sir Cahir O'Doherty led a force of rebels to storm Derry in Ulster. He launched his rebellion with an attack on the garrison town of Derry, which was taken thanks to the element of surprise. The town was then almost entirely destroyed by fire.



O'Doherty's rebellion took place in 1608 when Sir Cahir O'Doherty, lord of Inishowen, began an uprising against the Crown authorities in the west of Ulster in the north-west of the Kingdom of Ireland. O'Doherty, a Gaelic chieftain, had been a long-standing supporter of the Crown, but having been angered at his treatment by local officials he launched an attack on Derry, burning the town. O'Doherty may have hoped to negotiate a settlement with the government, but, after his death in a skirmish at Kilmacrennan, the rebellion collapsed with the last survivors being besieged on Tory Island.