Tag: heritage
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First Among Equals
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council has opened a consultation on its Draft Heritage Plan 2025-2030. It is a first for FODC and is undoubtedly to be welcomed, as is the appointment, two years ago, of a heritage officer. The consultation is not being conducted through open public meetings which would have given it more energy…
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Willie Lunney’s Turning Point
I am intrigued by the idea of this man who, through his connection to the southwest Fermanagh landscape, epitomised toil, risk and innovation in a time of great industrial change a hundred and fifty years ago. All we know about Willie Lunney comes from a scrap of oral folk memory, but it’s enough to inform…
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Slieve Rushen’s Lost Millstones
Slieve Rushen is a place apart. From its 1200 ft summit the view of the surrounding countryside is exhilarating. From here its massif, imagined as an island, rises above a lowland green sea, its broad summit enabling and unifying rather than impeding communications between the surrounding small settlements strung around its base, their backs to…
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Living Cheek By Jowl
Despite its poor state of preservation I have rarely come across an ancient monument so intriguing. Its location and appearance were counter intuitive and out of context. Moreover, it shouldn’t have been there. I had checked the heritage map before I started out, and there were no scheduled sites of any kind indicated for this…
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Atlantic Rock Art
The dog had to be walked, but given the day that was in it, I wasn’t enthusiastic about going out. A grey membrane of cloud hung low over the hills of southwest Fermanagh. It was wet and dreary. I was indecisive about where to go. Then I remembered a route I had been meaning to…
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A Trannish Island Mystery
Most of us know, like an article of faith, the tune and chorus by heart. It is old, but it is beautiful, and its colours they are fine, It was worn at Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne. My father wore it as a youth in bygone days of yore, And on the Twelfth, I love to wear…
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Made To Measure
It caught my eye in an instant. I back tracked. Close to the roadside fence near Lough Lattone on the Fermanagh Leitrim border was a crow’s foot, or Ordnance Survey benchmark chiselled onto the surface of an exposed slab of bedrock. I regularly cycle this route but had failed to see it until now. I later checked an…
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From Newtown to No Town
Our landscapes today are peppered with monuments such as megalithic tombs, castles, churches and period houses, whilst other important relicts such as old roads, remain invisible and forgotten. Despite once being an essential part of our built, social and commercial heritage, they remain unseen even to those who live close to them. Once at the…
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News From Afar
The entry in the Annals of Ulster was concise: 720 A.D. Theodore reigned one year. A few numerals and words were all that were needed to record the short rule of Theodosius III, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople from 715-17 A.D. This entry, and another about the first Viking raid along the north coast of…
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Wine Red Waters and Ladder Fields
I was searching recently along the western flanks of Slieve Rushen on the Fermanagh side of the Cavan border for an ancient well, the waters of which turn wine-red every seventh year on 23rd June. After finding the spring and a colourless stream (not surprising really as I was two months early for the anticipated event),…
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Walking a Mile in Their Shoes
“Through here is the refractory. Note the heavy iron door and locking mechanism.” I was confused. Did she say refectory? I know what a refectory is, and what I was being shown didn’t fit with my experience of a boarding school dining hall with its rules governing the disciplined distribution and consumption of food. In…
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House of Neachtain
Sometimes I come across places that don’t quite add up, like an early lost church site I visited recently. Hidden within dense forestry it proved difficult to access and I was beaten back on two occasions by heavy undergrowth. Finally, on a third attempt, I stumbled out into a large open glade, about half an…
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Village Pump Politics
Following a recent public comment by a local politician about his concerns regarding the proposed withdrawal of emergency surgical services from Enniskillen hospital, a Health spokesperson accused him of engaging in village pump politics, and by implication, that he (the politician) was an uninformed gossip who listened to too much parochial tittle tattle. I took…
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A Battle of Everywhere and Nowhere
Ideas of heritage and culture are born out of meanings we attach to landscapes, events, sites, and monuments. The Battle of Newtownbutler (31st July 1689) is one such event that occurred within the drowned drumlin landscape of Upper Lough Erne. Coming near the end of a merciless century in which up to half a million died…
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Men Who Eat Crannogs
The construction of a bypass a decade ago on the A32 Enniskillen Cherrymount link road caused the partial destruction of Drumclay crannog and triggered a massive, costly (£2.5m), and hasty archaeological rescue excavation, which uncovered the richest finds anywhere associated with this type of medieval dwelling in Ireland. The crannog, occupied from the 6th or 7th century to the 17th century, revealed layers of occupation…
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Three Men In A Boat
The day was warm and sunny and the sea was calm. My companions were in high spirits, and full of chat about recent politics. Launching the rib, the skipper wondered aloud if there would ever be a united Ireland. Given the destination and our eagerness to be away the question seemed out of place, and…
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The Last of the Name
The unimproved grassland had commanding views to the south. The small wet fields, peppered with rushes and gorse were tough going on heavy ground recently trampled by cattle. Raised field banks, blanketed with willows and birch, obscured the sight lines I needed to find the sweat house, which according to the map, was close by.…
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Fairies Have Been Around For A Long Time
Not all monuments are what they appear. Take raths, for example. Sometimes known as fairy forths or ring forts, raths are common across our lowland landscapes. Located mostly on top of many small hills or drumlins, they generally date from the 5th to 11th Century AD. Raths are not to be confused with the larger hill…
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All Over the Place
The phone call came in the wee hours. One of our volunteers had stumbled into a production office at the far end of the festival’s perimeter fence, at least an hour’s walk away. Distressed and anxious, we needed to escort her back to her tent. Chatting the following day about her misadventure, she explained that…
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The Navel of Fermanagh
Omphalos is an ancient Greek word meaning the centre, or navel of the earth. Located at Delphi, it was the religious go-to-place for seekers of wisdom and advice from the famous oracle who resided there. I sometimes fancy that there was a similar omphalos-like inspiration behind the construction of the monuments on the southern tip of…