Things to do in County Fermanagh

Belleek Pottery in the small village of Belleek in County Fermanagh, right on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, is one of Ireland's oldest and most famous craft manufacturers, a producer of distinctive fine parian china and pottery that has been made in this border village since 1857. The pottery is celebrated internationally for its delicate basket-weave china decorated with flowers and shells and for the characteristic pale creamy glaze that gives Belleek its unique appearance, and its products have been collected by royalty, displayed in international exhibitions and exported across the world throughout its long history. The story of Belleek Pottery's founding is tied directly to the geological accident that placed the raw materials for fine pottery manufacture in this remote corner of Fermanagh. The discovery of feldspar, kaolin and other clay minerals in the area in the mid-nineteenth century provided the raw materials for a pottery industry, and the power of the River Erne flowing through the village provided the energy to drive the manufacturing process. John Caldwell Bloomfield, the local landlord, recognised the potential and established the pottery in partnership with London business interests, creating employment in an area that had been devastated by the Great Famine of the previous decade. The visitor experience at Belleek includes a tour of the working factory floor where visitors can watch the skilled craftspeople forming, decorating and glazing the pottery by hand using techniques that have remained largely unchanged since the Victorian period. The museum within the complex tells the story of the pottery's history and displays examples of its most celebrated pieces from across different periods of production. The extensive showroom and shop offer the full range of current production. The village of Belleek itself sits attractively on the River Erne and is a good base for exploring the Fermanagh lakelands, with Lough Erne and its numerous islands providing boat trips, fishing and the remarkable early Christian carvings of White Island and Boa Island within easy reach.

Castle Balfour at Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is a ruined plantation-era castle built in the early seventeenth century by Sir James Balfour, a Scottish planter who had been granted lands in Fermanagh following the Plantation of Ulster. The castle is situated beside the Church of Ireland church in Lisnaskea town and represents the distinctive plantation castle tradition of early seventeenth-century Ulster, where Scottish and English settlers built defensible houses to establish their authority in a recently conquered landscape. Lisnaskea is a market town on the upper Erne waterway system in the lake district of Fermanagh, and the surrounding landscape of Lough Erne with its numerous islands, early Christian monasteries and wildlife habitats makes County Fermanagh one of the most beautiful and historically layered parts of Northern Ireland.

Castle Caldwell is a ruined plantation-era castle on the shores of Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, set within a forest park that provides excellent birdwatching and walking in a landscape of outstanding natural beauty. The castle was built by the Caldwell family, Scottish planters who received a land grant in this part of Fermanagh in the early seventeenth century. The forest park around the castle is one of the finest woodland nature reserves in Northern Ireland, with old woodland, reedbeds and the open waters of Lower Lough Erne supporting a remarkable range of breeding and wintering birds including the largest common scoter colony in the British Isles. The castle has a curious fame as the site of the Fiddle Stone, a carved stone fiddle erected to commemorate a fiddler who fell into the lough from the laird's pleasure boat while intoxicated.

Castle Coole near Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is one of the finest neoclassical country houses in Ireland, built between 1790 and 1798 for the first Earl Belmore to designs by James Wyatt, one of the foremost architects of the period. The house is constructed of Portland stone shipped to Ireland at enormous expense, giving the gleaming white facades an exceptional quality and refinement that distinguishes it from most Irish country houses of the period. The interior contains outstanding Regency furnishings, plasterwork and decorative schemes largely intact from the early nineteenth century, creating one of the most complete examples of a Regency country house interior in the British Isles. The house is in the care of the National Trust and is open to visitors. The surrounding parkland with its extensive lake and mature trees provides an attractive setting for one of the architectural masterpieces of Georgian Ireland.

Near the village of Newtownbutler, Crom Castle is set on the banks of Lough Erne on an estate of rolling parkland 18 miles south of Enniskillen. The neo-Tudor mansion house is built of grey stone with the main part of the boiling and wings being over two floors. The entrance is a battlemented tower with smaller towers to one side. The castle has formal gardens which reach out to the estate and parkland beyond covering 1,900 acres. The ruins of Old Crom Castle can also be seen within the estate although now it is only parts of two towers and a ha-ha; a deep ditch which gives an optical illusion of not being there. The old Crom Castle is .located at approximate coordinates 54.162637, -7.443872. There are also two of the oldest yew trees in Ireland on the estate, believed to be over 800 years old. Facilities The castle is home to the Earls or Erne, the Crichton family and not open to the public however the estate; managed by the National Trust, is open daily between March and November between 10am and 6pm (7pm during the summer). The castle also has a Visitor Centre open daily between April and September and at weekends for the rest of the year. The grounds hold one of the National Trust's most important nature reserves as well as ancient yew trees classified as amongst Britain's 50 greatest trees. Visitors can hire fishing rods and boats to take a trip out onto the waters. The West Wing of Crom Castle has been opened as holiday accommodation with access to the Earl's private gardens, tennis court and motor boat. Available to rent all year round the wing can sleep up to 12 people and is furnished in period style. The accommodation comprises of a west facing drawing room with views out towards the lake, a dining room with barrel vaulted ceiling and a fully equipped modern kitchen. The castle is the ideal place for an intimate wedding of up to 50 guests at a civil ceremony or a wedding reception in the conservatory. The original castle on the estate was owned by the Balfour's until 1609 when it was purchased by the Crichton family. The family also held the title Earls of Erne and the new castle was built by the 3rd Earl in the 1830's. The castle was designed by the architect who was also responsible for designing some sections of Buckingham palace, Edward Blore. Crom Castle has remained in the hands of the Crichton family ever since and is now home to the 6th Earl, Henry George Victor John Crichton with his only son Viscount John Henry Michael Ninian Crichton being the heir to the title.

Devenish Island in Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh is one of the finest and most completely preserved early Christian monastic sites in Ireland, an island accessible by ferry from Trory Point whose combination of a twelfth-century round tower of exceptional quality, an Augustinian abbey of the same period, an earlier oratory and an elaborate high cross creates one of the most complete assemblages of early medieval ecclesiastical architecture available at any Irish island monastic site. The setting on the island in the beautiful landscape of Lough Erne adds considerable atmospheric quality to the visit. The round tower at Devenish, approximately 25 metres high and complete to its conical cap, is one of the finest and most completely preserved in Ireland, its stone staircase still intact within the tower and the carved decorative band that encircles the tower below the cap level providing one of the most elaborate examples of decorative stonework on any Irish round tower. The tower was built in the twelfth century on a monastery site traditionally founded by St Molaise in the sixth century, and the combination of the early medieval foundation and the twelfth-century architectural elaboration reflects the prosperity of Devenish as one of the most important monasteries in Ulster. The Augustinian abbey ruins, including the substantial remains of the church, the cloister and the residential buildings, provide the later medieval dimension to a site whose full span of ecclesiastical use from the sixth to the sixteenth century can be traced through the surviving architecture.

Enniskillen Castle is situated in Enniskillen beside the River Erne in the north west of Ireland. The restored castle consists of a central keep built over two floors with semi circular half towers and a surrounding wall built of grey stone. Facilities The castle is now home to the Fermanagh and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers museum which is open all year round and also houses the castle's gift shop. The museum has a collection of over 8,000 artifacts about Fermanagh, Enniskillen and the Fusiliers displayed over the course of the year as well as organizing events such as history lectures, craft demonstrations and story telling. One of most popular displays in the museum is the collection of weapons and uniforms dating back to the 17th century. Enniskillen Castle was built in the early 15th century by the Maguire clan in a strategic position on the River Erne, the north western part of their territory. The original castle was originally built as a small square tower house surrounded by a curtain wall which frequently came under attack, after one such attack in 1508 by Hugh O'Donnell the castle was burned to the ground. Following the castle's destruction it was rebuilt, this time much larger and in a rectangular shape. Between 1508 and 1602 the castle was besieged, taken and returned to the Maguire's no less than six times before it was totally destroyed by the English and Naill O'Donnell. Captain William Cole was responsible for the rebuilding of the castle in 1607 and added the Watergate Tower to the south side of the site, during the 18th century the castle was remodelled again to become a military barracks. The castle was taken into the care of the state and is classified as a National Monument.

Florence Court is a magnificent mid-eighteenth century Palladian mansion south-west of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in the care of the National Trust. Built for the Cole family who were later Earls of Enniskillen, the house features an exuberant central block with carved stone garlands, flanking wings and outstanding Rococo plasterwork interiors of exceptional quality. The estate is also notable as the location of the original Florence Court yew, from which virtually all the Irish yew trees planted in gardens and churchyards worldwide are descended, making this a site of botanical as well as architectural and historical significance. The surrounding parkland with its mountain backdrop in the Cuilcagh Mountain foothills, the walled garden and estate buildings together constitute one of the finest National Trust properties in Northern Ireland.

Lough Erne in County Fermanagh is one of the finest lake landscapes in Ireland, a great two-part system of Upper and Lower Lough Erne connected by the River Erne whose combined waters create a landscape of islands, peninsulas and woodland lake shores of extraordinary beauty and ecological richness. The concentration of early Christian heritage on the islands of Lower Lough Erne, including Devenish Island and White Island, makes this one of the most historically significant lake landscapes in Ulster. The lakes are navigable throughout their length and the Shannon-Erne Waterway provides the longest inland waterway journey available in Ireland. Boat cruising on Lough Erne has been popular since the Victorian period, combining lake scenery, island hopping and the wildlife of the lake margins into a varied waterway experience. The wildlife of Lough Erne includes internationally important populations of whooper swans and other wildfowl that winter on the lake. Otters, kingfishers and breeding waterbirds provide year-round wildlife interest, while the Marble Arch Caves near the southern end provide an excellent complementary natural heritage destination.

The Marble Arch Caves in County Fermanagh are the finest showcaves in Ireland and one of the most important cave systems in the British Isles, a complex of limestone caverns explored from 1895 onward that provides one of the most spectacular underground experiences in Ireland. The boat journey on the underground river through flooded passages provides the most memorable introduction to any show cave in the country. The caves form part of the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark. The show cave experience begins with a boat journey through a flooded section of the cave system, the guide navigating the low passages above the underground river while the cave ceiling reflects in the still water below. The subsequent walk through the decorated caverns, with stalactites and stalagmites of considerable variety, provides a comprehensive tour of formations accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years. The Geopark encompasses the remarkable karst landscape of Cuilcagh Mountain, including the Cuilcagh boardwalk trail sometimes called the Stairway to Heaven for its dramatic ascent to the mountain plateau. The combination of caves and surface landscape creates one of the most complete geopark experiences in Ireland.

Monea Castle near Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is a remarkably well-preserved early seventeenth-century plantation castle considered the finest example of a Scottish-influenced plantation castle in Ireland. Built by Malcolm Hamilton, the castle features two distinctive Scottish-style circular towers with corbelled rectangular cap-houses projecting above the parapet level, creating a roofline that bears a strong resemblance to Craignethan Castle in Scotland and reflects the Scottish origins of many Ulster plantation settlers. The castle was abandoned in the eighteenth century and has remained as a substantial and atmospheric ruin in the Fermanagh lakeland landscape. The castle is in the care of the Historic Environment Division and freely accessible, providing one of the most compelling plantation sites in Ulster.

Necarne Castle at Irvinestown in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival house on the site of an earlier castle, now used as a residential equestrian centre and activity facility. The castle is set within an estate on the shores of Castle Lough, a small lake near the town of Irvinestown in the rolling agricultural countryside of mid-Fermanagh. The equestrian tradition at Necarne is well established and the centre hosts a range of residential equestrian courses and training programmes, making the historic castle buildings an unusual combination of heritage building and active sporting facility. The surrounding County Fermanagh landscape, with its two great lakes of Upper and Lower Lough Erne and the Cuilcagh Mountain plateau on the border with the Republic, is one of the most scenically attractive areas of Northern Ireland.

Portora Castle is a ruined seventeenth-century castle in Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, standing on a promontory above the lower reaches of the Erne where the river leaves Upper Lough Erne and enters Lower Lough Erne, commanding the waterway that was central to the military and commercial geography of medieval and early modern Fermanagh. The castle was built in the early seventeenth century as a plantation-era fortification to control this strategic waterway crossing. The castle's prominence was later overshadowed by the adjacent Portora Royal School, one of the oldest schools in Ireland, whose alumni include Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, two of the greatest writers in the English language. The castle ruins stand in the school grounds overlooking the Erne.

Tully Castle near Blaney on the shores of Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is a well-preserved early seventeenth-century plantation castle built by Sir John Hume around 1610 as part of the systematic colonisation of Fermanagh by Scottish and English settlers. The castle is a T-plan fortified house with a bawn enclosure, representing the standard plantation castle design of the period and providing a remarkably complete example of the type. The castle was attacked and burned during the 1641 rising, with the garrison and their families massacred, and was never subsequently reoccupied, preserving the plantation-era layout largely intact. The castle is in the care of the Historic Environment Division and is freely accessible within a beautiful setting on the shore of Lower Lough Erne, with views across the lough toward the hills of County Donegal.

White Island on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh is the site of a ruined early medieval church containing one of the most remarkable and most enigmatic collections of carved stone figures in Ireland, seven carved stone figures of the eighth and ninth centuries whose meaning and function have been debated by scholars since they were incorporated into the wall of the ruined church in the nineteenth century. The figures, ranging from approximately half a metre to one metre in height, represent a mixture of clearly Christian subjects and others of more ambiguous or apparently pagan character, making White Island one of the most intellectually interesting early medieval sites in Ireland. The island is accessible by ferry from Castle Archdale Marina on the eastern shore of Lower Lough Erne, and the combination of the boat crossing, the island setting and the concentrated strangeness of the carved figures makes White Island one of the most distinctive heritage experiences in Ulster. The figures are set in a row along the interior wall of the ruined church, their variety of expression and subject matter creating an immediate impression of visual and intellectual complexity. The carved figures include a sheela-na-gig, the exhibitionist female figure found widely in Irish and British medieval churches and whose meaning continues to generate scholarly debate, alongside figures that appear to represent ecclesiastical subjects. The combination of these different figure types in a single architectural context has generated numerous interpretations, none of which has achieved general acceptance. The wider Lough Erne landscape of Fermanagh, with its extraordinary concentration of early medieval monuments and the beautiful lake scenery, provides one of the most rewarding heritage landscapes in Northern Ireland.