Lohaghat and its surrounding region were earlier known as Sui, and the town has been a place of prominence since the rule of
Katyuri kings. A scion of the Katyuri dynasty had established his principality at Sui in the eighth century. The rulers of Sui were feudatories to the Katyuris until the fragmentation of the Katyuri kingdom at the end of the 10th century, after which they became feudatories of
Doti. Brahma Dev Katyuri, the last Katyuri governor of Sui was having trouble managing his areas due to several rebellions by local Khasia chiefs. The Khasia chiefs subsequently unified under a Raut king of Damkot thus increasing problems for Brahmadev, who married off his daughter to prince Somchand, bestowing his principality upon him as dowry. Lohaghat remained under the
Kingdom of Kumaon until the fall of
Almora at the hand of Gurkhas in 1790. The
Banasur fort was built here by the Chand kings in the 12th century. Lohaghat came under the control of the
East India Company following the defeat of Gurkhas in
Anglo-Nepal War of 1814 and the
Treaty of Sugauli in 1816. The Britishers were impressed by the natural beauty of the place and began to settle here. The lands of Fernhill and Chanuwankhal were leased to Hensi and Mrs Hoskin for tea and fruit production. The lands of Hensi were later transferred to an Englishman named 'Talak' which came to be known as 'Talak Estate'. The arrival of the British commenced an era of development in Lohaghat; efforts were made for development of education, health, revenue, legal, land settlement, construction of roads etc. Maneuvers used to be carried out at the 'Chandmari' situated near the present location of the government inter college. However, a local rebellion of 1846 resulted in the removal of military camp from Lohaghat and the troops were transferred back to Hawalbagh until the establishment of another permanent Cantonment at
Ranikhet. Lohaghat was declared a
town area on 10 December 1951, and was subsequently upgraded to a
notified area on 12 July 1972 and a
Nagar Panchayat on 4 June 1994. == Geography and Climate ==