page_title: Letterkenny
section_title: Tidy Towns
hierarchical_section_title: Letterkenny / Environment / Tidy Towns
caption_attribution_description: English: Letterkenny's High Street
context_page_description: Letterkenny, nicknamed "the Cathedral Town", is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, Ireland. It lies on the River Swilly in East Donegal and has a population of 19,274. It is the 36th largest settlement in all of Ireland by population and is the 15th largest settlement by population in the historic province of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is considered a regional economic gateway for the north-west of Ireland. Letterkenny acts as an urban gateway to the Ulster Gaeltacht, similar to Galway's relationship to the Connemara Gaeltacht.
  Letterkenny began as a market town at the start of the 17th century, during the Plantation of Ulster. A castle once stood near where the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba, County Donegal's only Catholic cathedral, stands today. Letterkenny Castle, built in 1625, was located south of Mt Southwell on Castle Street. County Donegal's premier third-level institution, the Letterkenny Institute of Technology, is located in the town, as are St Eunan's College, Highland Radio, and a Hindu temple.
context_section_description: Letterkenny has a long history in Ireland's national Tidy Towns competition, first entering in 1959 and achieving its best result in 2015.
  In 2002, a National Anti-Litter League survey carried out by An Taisce compared Letterkenny's excess litter to that normally associated with The Liberties, a litter black spot located in Dublin's impoverished inner city. It was voted "Best Kept Urban Centre" in the 2007 'Best Kept Town Awards' and took top prize in the "Large Urban Centre" category at the 2007 Tidy Towns competition. It appeared to maintain its litter-free status for the remainder of that decade, judging by the results of a study by business group Irish Business Against Litter, published on 23 August 2010.
  In 2011, it was named as its county's tidiest town, receiving 306 points, four less than overall winner Killarney. This included 47/50 points for its landscaping, the highest number of points scored by any town in this category. Out of the 821 entrants in the 2011 competition, Letterkenny finished in eighth place and received a gold medal for a ninth consecutive year. In the 2012 competition, it was selected as the tidiest town in the north-west of the country. In 2013, it was selected as one of Ireland's top ten towns.
  In 2015, Letterkenny achieved its best result in the Tidy Towns competition, being awarded top prize in the "Large Urban Centre" category and receiving the overall award as Ireland's tidiest, Ireland's best. Letterkenny received the same points total in 2016 but this was not sufficient to retain the title.
caption: Traffic congestion on Letterkenny's High Road
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