Historic Places in County Fermanagh

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.

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.

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.