Ulster Scots people

Ulster Scots, also known as the Ulster-Scots people or Scots-Irish, are an ethnic group descended largely from Lowland Scottish and Northern English settlers who moved to the northern province of Ulster in Ireland mainly during the 17th century. There is an Ulster Scots dialect of the Scots language.

Historically, there have been considerable population exchanges between Ireland and Scotland over the millennia. This group is found mostly in the province of Ulster; their ancestors were Protestant settlers who migrated mainly from the historically conflict‑ridden counties of the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England along the Anglo-Scottish border during the Plantation of Ulster, which was a planned process of colonisation following the Tudor conquest of Ireland. The largest numbers came from Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway, Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and, to a lesser extent, from the counties of Ayrshire, Durham, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Yorkshire, as well as the Scottish Highlands.

Ulster Scots people, displaced through hardship, emigrated in significant numbers around in the British Empire and especially to the American colonies, later Canada and the United States. In North America, they are sometimes called "Scotch-Irish", though this term is not used in the British Isles.