Blaney Caravan Park, County Fermanagh

                                     

The last two days have been a little more unpredictable weather wise, but no less rewarding in the wonders we have visited or seen in this fabulous Lake District, more worthy of the moniker than that in England, although this does not have the mountains to the same extent as there.

Yesterday, after catching up with the third of our “children” for the week, a real bonus for me, we headed off toward one of the remaining National Trust properties on our itinerary, Florencecourt, named for the wife of one of the earliest Earls of Enniskillen, the “remarkable” family so described in the National Trust brochure, and to be considered so if you consider those outsiders who were “re-planted” into Ireland following the Cromwellian upheaval. However earlier Polynesian settlers of New Zealand could say the same of my ancestors. It is the way of the world, as new waves of settlors “re-plant” the world; perhaps we should not get too hung up on it all.

Anyway … the first house on the site was the brain child of John Cole and named after his wife, Florence, daughter of a Baronet from Devon.  The original design is attributed to German architect Richard Cassels, whose name seems to crop up from time to time here in Ireland. Alas, Cole, who died in 1723, did not live long enough to see the project completed. 

The property is situated eight kilometres south west of Enniskillen, set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Moutain, and considered in the first instance to be a hunting lodge.

The extensions to the original central block were designed by Italian engineer and architect, Davis Ducart, and built in 1771 for John’s son, also John, in dressed sandstone as opposed to the rendered limestone rubble of the central block.

Situated in such an idyllic spot, with views of nothing but woods, meadows and mountains, it was adopted as the main residence of the Earls of Enniskillen, the first of these peers, William Cole, 1^st Viscount Enniskillen created in 1789. It remained the seat of the Earls until 1973 when the 6^th Earl went off in a huff to Scotland where he and his childless wife remained until they died.

The house and fourteen acres surrounding it were transferred into the National Trust in 1953 by the 5^th Earl, on the proviso that the family remain in residence. Just two years later, after the Trust had installed electricity, a fire destroyed the upper floors of the house, caused by … faulty electrical installation, this after centuries of residents and staff wandering about in the darkness with candles and other exposed flames.

Fortunately a survey assessment immediately after the fire noticed the water reservoir above the fabulous plasterwork in the dining room, caused by over enthusiastic firemen, and hastily drilled six holes in the ceiling thus saving the greater part of this precious architectural feature. However restoration took several years and it was some time before it reopened to the public as it is today, and even now, one can only wander through in a scheduled tour parties.

One of the stars of the property is the Walled Garden, originally created in the 18^th century for practical purposes and today absolutely full of birdlife: robins in numbers not encountered before as well as mistle thrushes, blackbirds and magpies.

In the 19^th century, Charlotte, a rich heiress from Dumfriesshire and chosen wife of the 4^th Earl, spent some of her dowry developing the garden further, while her husband, apart from finding some time to beget a further generation, spent most of his time drinking, gambling and being a rather unattractive man.

Charlotte brought James Sutherland over from Scotland as head gardener and he spent the next twenty years doing her bidding. The gardens were well maintained until the 1940s and afterwards went into gentle decline until 1974 when the ownership transferred to Forest Service, and later in 1995 into the care of the National Trust.

This garden, while not up to the standard of many we have seen across Britain, is still quite lovely and worth a visit. There are also miles and miles of trails through the adjoining forest and through the extensive gardens.

We enjoyed our tour of the house very much and were glad that the widow of the last UK based Earl had bequeathed all the contents taken from the house when she and her husband had hightailed it to Scotland, to the Trust in her will. Actually the contents were supposed to have been left in situ when the National Trust took over the property back in the 1950s; this was no doubt part of the row that lingered for some years prior to 1998 when all those chattels made their way back to where they belonged.

It had been our plan to stay on after exploring the house and the immediate surrounds, and do an extensive walk through the woods, however the weather changed and the rain put us off donning our walking shoes. Instead we headed a little west to the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark.

This is mostly about the limestone caves in the area and if the pictures in the promotional brochures are to be believed, it is a wonderful tourist attraction for those who like going down holes. I was not too inspired when I read that the caves have been known to flood, especially since that ghastly Thai cave rescue earlier this year, however I do appreciate I am not comparing apples with apples.

We drove on past the caves, following the signs for the Marlbank Drive, which takes one along the lower slopes of Cuilcagh Mountain through limestone country with views back up to the mountain when the rain cloud is not obscuring it, and down over Lough Macnean Lower, that immediately to the east of the international border at Belcoo, the northern shore of which we had driven along when we arrived in County Fermanagh a few days ago.

The afternoon was still wet; we headed to the Asda supermarket in Enniskillen and shopped before heading home mid-afternoon, but not before we noticed the leaves are already turning gold, spelling the beginning of the autumn.

This morning we slept late, ridiculously so for us and I was glad that we had not booked an early tour at our first destination. After shaking ourselves to a waking state, we set off with our normal packed lunch, north up Lower Lough Erne toward the international border, that route followed when we ventured back into Eire to explore part of County Donegal.

At Belleek, we pulled into the pottery factory named for the town, or more likely named the other way around. I made some rather derogatory comments about the pottery put out by this factory a few days ago, and have not changed my mind greatly, apart from respecting the artistry, the skill, the economic forethought and the on-going tourism enterprise that the Belleek Pottery provides today.

Yesterday I threw out the suggestion of a factory tour to my husband, despite my own reluctance, but as tour director, I must consider the tastes of all parties. He was keen, and I was accommodating when he suggested including it into the itinerary I would have preferred. Win-win for all!

Unsurprisingly the factory precinct was packed out by coachloads of tourists, and although we had telephoned yesterday afternoon about the availability of tours and been told we just need turn up, we had to wait over an hour to be accommodated into a party, joining a coachload of Trafalgar customers, a rather sluggish lot of Americans who further put Chris off ever taking a coach tour.

We filled in our time looking through the shop, full of fine pottery, including a heap of my least favoured basketware and a great variety of more tasteful items that I could have been talked into buying had I space to gather possessions which eventually have to be shipped home. Again in fairness, Belleek Pottery, as many outlets, do offer international shipping, which they offer free as they well can do so, given they will no doubt enjoy zero GST / VAT commitments on these “export” sales. I reckon they still end up winning even as their international customers think they are being so very generous. Win-win, again!

Apart from the shop, there are the inevitable tearooms and a small but informative museum which serves to fill in time. And when we were called for our tour, we were led through a section of the factory which we reckoned to be set up especially for tourist consumption, staffed by talented staff who have a pleasant demeanour to deal with the inevitable tourist quizzing. Our guide was very good, the tour was very fairly priced and our experience was spot on. 

We learned too that John Caldwell Bloomfield who set up the pottery, did so with the assistance, inspirational  and financial, of David McBirney and Robert Williams Armstrong, these other men as worthy of praise as Bloomfield. This latter had inherited the Castlecaldwell Estate in 1847, right in the middle of the famine, which must have been a very challenging “prize”. In 1853 he commissioned a survey of his estate which revealed the presence of kaolin or china clay, and feldspar, both vital ingredients for producing porcelain. So the establishment of the pottery was not entirely inspired by philanthropic and heartfelt considerations for the local populace. Let’s face it; the world is basically driven by money.

During the tour, I asked the guide whether the stocks of these minerals were still sufficient for the industry’s demands and was told that they had run out some years ago, and the china clay and feldspar were now sourced from Cromwell.  We remembered passing the great open “quarries” of these products when we travelled to the south west of England; it is wonderful how everything is interrelated and connected in the world.

From Belleek, we took the A47 east then south along the northern side of Lower Lough Erne, stopping partway along to picnic with views across the lake up to those cliffs we had stood above on our first afternoon in Fermanagh. The weather was fabulous, the sun shining and visibility clear.   

The A47 passes across the string of islands that almost divide the Lough into two separate areas, the greatest of these, Boa Island, which is large enough to support quite a few farms. Here, as we have seen over the past week, hay was being bailed; I suspect this is a second harvest given the lateness of the season.

We passed on through the villages of Letterkeen and Kesh, now following minor roads nearer the lakeshore, turning at Trory up a very narrow lane even closer to the lake. Here is the pier for those who wish to cross to Devenish Island, a popular tourist destination because of the monastic site founded in the 6^th century, now very much ruins except for the brave 12^th round tower, still standing as a beacon to longevity. It is this tower that appears in much promotional material for Fermanagh, not least the Belleek Pottery crest.

I had no wish to catch the ferry across to the island; we had no space in our schedule, but I was hopeful for a photo opportunity. From the shore I did glimpse the tower, but realised any photo would have been not worth saving, and Chris was already voicing what is becoming a mantra: more time here means less time elsewhere.

We pressed on down to Enniskillen, to the third National Trust property in the area, Castle Coole, which had been on my original itinerary. There we found tours of the house were by booking only, so we did so, then set off to complete all the walks on offer; the Lake. Beech and Gortgonnell walks, nearly three kilometres if one did them separately, but with the overlap, somewhat shorter.

Still with time to spare we hung about in the second hand book shop, something so many of these National Trust properties have tucked in a corner of the revamped stable areas. It is one of these that we donated all our collected books last year to, and will no doubt again when we leave in under two months, all for a very worthy cause.

Castle Coole covers an area of 422 acres, part of the demesne owned by the Lowry-Corry family since 1955, which once formed the core of a 70,000 acre estate. The first house was built around 1707 in Queen Anne style, but was burned down in the 1790s, soon after the new house was completed.

Castle Coole was built to impress by the first Earl of Belmore between 1789 and 1797, and is considered to be one of the greatest neo-classical country houses in Ireland. This first Earl set out to spare no expense, engaging one architect who was subsequently replaced by the famous James Wyatt when he decided it needed a little more class. The façade and many of the interior floors are of Portland stone, imported from the south of England by the Earl’s own ship, then barged through from Ballyshannon, obviously at enormous expense. The plaster work was done by Joseph Rose, and other craftsmen were brought in from Italy.  It is indeed a wonderful house, or at least those rooms the public are shown and which have been restored to their former glory in the intervening years.

The 2^nd Earl spent as much as his father had, but on the furnishings, many of which are still graceing the rooms of this rather grand house.

The first few Earls were of a straight blood line, one of the early ones a bit of a gypsy like us, however he took his family travelling on his own ship, not in a caravan. Another was appointed Governor of Jamaica and Governor of New South Wales.

In 1951 the family finances were struggling after a series of deaths and the resulting inheritance tax, the 5^th and 6^th Earls having left without issue, thus the castle and seventy acres came into the hands of the National Trust. The chattels were left on permanent loan, and today two sons retain apartments in one wing of the castle, while the current Earl lives in his own house on the edge of the estate.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit of Castle Coole, just as we had of the other two National Trust properties in Fermanagh. In fact Fermanagh just has so much to offer and we will leave tomorrow before having discovered it all, even after having spent five touring days here.