TYRONE' (Tir-owen, " Owen's country"), an inland co. of Ulster, Ireland, bounded n. by Londonderry, e. by Armagh and lough Neagh, s. by Monaghan and Fermanagh, and w. by the last-named county and Donegal. A portion of lough Neagh is assigned by the ordnance survey to this county; and, including this portion, the whole area is 1260 sq.m., or 806,640 acres, of which 450,286 are arable, 311,867 uncultivated, 31,796 under water, 11,981 in plantations, and 710 in towns. The pop. iu '71 was 215,766, of whom 119,937 were Roman Catholics, 49,201 Protestants of the Anglican church, 42, 156 Presbyterians, and the rest of other denominations. Of the arable land, in 1878 258,150 acres were under crops of various kinds. In the same year the stock amounted to 26,510 horses; 159,858 cattle, 46,083 sheep, and 38,105 pigs. The surface in general is hilly, and often extremely picturesque, this county lying for the most part between the two great mountainous districts which traverse Ulster from e. to west. With the exception of lough Neagh, the lakes, which are numerous, are small. The principal rivers are the Blackwater, the Camowen, and the Balliuderiy, of which the two former are navigable. The county is traversed by railways, which connect it with Dublin, Belfast, and the sea-coast at Dundalk. The geological structure is very much diversi fied. The north-western mountains are chiefly mica-slate, with primitive limestone, and
rise in Slieve Sawel to a height of 2,336 feet. Those on the a e. are of greenstone, with granite and occasional red sandstone. The plain, of which Omagh is the center, is a tertiary formation, with irregular beds of lignite, red marl, and new red sandstone; and between Dungannon and Stewartstown there is a small coal-field, the produce of which is rich, and resembles the coal of Ayrshire. The rest of the plain belongs to the general limestone district. The climate is moist, and the low lands are often flooded. The soil of the plain is a fer;il loam ; that of the hilly districts sandy, or gravelly. There is a large proportion of bog, the turf of which supplies the chief part of the fuel consumed by the population.
The chief towns are Omagh, Strabane, Dungannon, Cookstown, Aughnacloy, Castle derg, and Clogher, which gives its name to the Episcopal see. Tyrone returns three members to the imperial parliament, two for the county, and one for the borough of Dungannon.
Tyrone was anciently known as the district of Hy-Briun and Hy-Fiachra; and in later Celtic times was called Kinel Eogain, or Tir-owen,whence its modern name. See ULSTER.