diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e20aabee40992000134a38517794316b49f40ec6..7befec3bf05d592798572e4f816075a913ebee01 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ if(STANDALONE AND NOT DEFINED CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE AND DEFINED ENV{CMAKE_TOOLCHA
   set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE $ENV{CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE})
 endif()
 
-project(Allen VERSION 6.8.1
+project(Allen VERSION 6.9
         LANGUAGES C CXX)
 
 # ---------------
diff --git a/ReleaseNotes/v6r9.md b/ReleaseNotes/v6r9.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cf96290c7b5441a1bc4636294840866a1574910b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ReleaseNotes/v6r9.md
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+2025-08-10 Allen v6r9
+===
+
+This version uses
+Rec [v38r9](../../../../Rec/-/tags/v38r9),
+Lbcom [v37r9](../../../../Lbcom/-/tags/v37r9),
+LHCb [v57r9](../../../../LHCb/-/tags/v57r9),
+Gaudi [v39r4](../../../../Gaudi/-/tags/v39r4),
+Detector [v3r3p2](../../../../Detector/-/tags/v3r3p2) and
+LCG [106c](http://lcginfo.cern.ch/release/106c/) with ROOT 6.32.10.
+
+This version is released on the `2025-patches` branch.
+Built relative to Allen [v6r8](/../../tags/v6r8), with the following changes:
+
+### New features ~"new feature"
+
+
+
+### Fixes ~"bug fix" ~workaround
+
+- Fixing Hlt1DownstreamGammaToEE, !2106 (@mborsato) [#11]
+
+
+### Enhancements ~enhancement
+
+
+
+### Code cleanups and changes to tests ~modernisation ~cleanup ~testing
+
+
+
+### Documentation ~Documentation
+
+
+### Other
+
+- Adding hlt1_pp_forward_then_matching_and_downstream_with_parkf_800kHz_M23, !2109 (@msaur)
+- Prepare Allen v6r8p1, !2107 (@msaur)
+- Rename namespace Gaudi::Units to Allen::Units, !2089 (@clemenci)
+- Sequences cleanup, !1893 (@samarian)