It is 55 miles 89 km north-west of Belfast and 30 miles 48 km east of Derry , both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections. It is part of Causeway Coast and Glens district. Coleraine had a population of 24, people in the census. Coleraine is at the lowest bridgeable point of the River Bann, where the river is 90 metres ft wide.
The town has a large catchment area and is designated as a "major growth area" in the Northern Ireland Development Strategy. Coleraine has some of the oldest evidence of human settlement in Ireland. When Patrick arrived in the neighbourhood, he was received with great honour and hospitality by the local chieftain, Nadslua, who offered him a piece of ground on which to build a church.
The spot was next to the river Bann and was overgrown with ferns, which were being burned by some boys to amuse themselves. It was translated by Colgan into Latin as Secessus Filicis. The town's main Church of Ireland church, St.
Patrick's Church , is named in reference to this history. It was heavily remodelled by the architect Sir Thomas Drew in the s. The town was one of the two urban communities developed by the London Companies in County Londonderry in the Plantation of Ulster at the start of the 17th century. In particular, The Honourable the Irish Society was made responsible for much of Coleraine and it remains so today. The slightly skewed street pattern of Coleraine's town centre is the legacy of that early exercise in town planning, along with traces of the lines of the ramparts that provided the Plantation town with its defences.
Richard Hamilton 's Irish Army made an attempt to seize the town but was repulsed. The Protestants were forced to abandon the town shortly afterwards and withdrew to Derry. Later the same year, following the failed Siege of Derry , Sir Charles Carney and his Jacobite garrison fled the town on receiving news of the advance of Percy Kirke 's Enniskillen forces and the landing at Carrickfergus of Marshal Schomberg. The Williamites controlled Coleraine for the remainder of the war. With some industrialisation, the expansion of the river port, and the development of the railway, the town expanded throughout the 19th century.
