The rich deanery of Derry then became vacant and Swift applied for it.
In 1733 George Stone was made dean of Ferns, and in the following year he exchanged this deanery for that of Derry; in 1740 he became bishop of Ferns, in 1743 bishop of Kildare, in 1745 bishop of Derry, and in 1747 archbishop of Armagh.
The ascent is usually made from Castleton of Braemar, by way of the Linn of Dee, Glen Lui and Glen Derry.
From the head of Glen Derry, with its blasted trees, the picture of desolation, it becomes more toilsome, but is partly repaid by the view of the remarkable columnar cliffs of Corrie Etchachan.
Murkertagh was chief of the great north Irish clan, the Cinel Eoghain,' and after becoming king of Ireland about the year 517, he wrested from a neighbouring clan a tract of country in the modern County Derry, which remained till the 17th century in the possession of the Cinel Eoghain.