Charitable Travel's TIPs: Get Outdoors in Ireland

Join us as we travel to the town of Enniskillen on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in this episode of Charitable Travel's Travel Insider Podcast series, in partnership with Tourism Ireland.

Lough Erne is the second largest lake system in Northern Ireland and is rich in history, wildlife and outdoor activities. Among the 150 plus islands of upper and lower Lough Erne, we find Barry Flanagan, owner of Erne Water Taxi. Based in Enniskillen, Barry and his team spend their days helping visitors explore this fascinating landscape from the water, and share stories of the people, castles, traditions, and food that have made this place home over the past 5,000 years!

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Transcript

Rebecca Miles: Hello and welcome to Charitable Travel’s Travel Insider Podcast. My name’s Rebecca Miles, I'm a travel journalist and the host of this podcast series that's otherwise known as TIPs. We want to give you lots of great travel tips today, but mostly we want to transport you from wherever you are right now… perhaps you're walking through the park, or maybe you're squashed into a crowded commuter train to a place that will inspire you. 

Today we're traveling to the town of Enniskillen on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. An hour and a half drive west from Belfast and it’s international Airport.

Lough Erne is the second largest lake system in Northern Ireland and is rich in history, wildlife and outdoor activities. Among the 150 plus islands of upper and lower Lough Erne, we find Barry Flanagan, owner of Erne Water Taxi. Based in Enniskillen, Barry and his team spend their days helping visitors explore this fascinating landscape and sharing stories of the people, castles, traditions, and food that have made this place home over the past 5,000 years.

But Enniskillen isn't just rich with history. It's also fast becoming a great destination for an active and adventurous outdoors holiday with plenty to do both on and off the water. So let's hand things over to Barry, the expert in the area to share with us what makes Lough Erne and Enniskillen so special.

Well, thanks so much for joining us. So paint the picture of where you are for us please. Where are you based and what's your current view? 

Barry Flanagan: Sure, Rebecca! We're here based on Lough Erne and I'm looking out at the water as I sit here at the moment. It's beautiful day. You can see the water just shimmering on the top of the surface here, and I'm looking across it a little in the middle of our town here. Yeah, beautiful day. Blue skies, so I can't complain. 

Rebecca Miles: Sounds gorgeous. Tell us some more about Erne Water Taxi. What do you do there and what can the visitors expect? 

Barry Flanagan: Sure. Well look, it's a beautiful waterway and I'd spent a few years traveling around the lough when I worked as an outdoor instructor and I was teaching kids how to canoe and things.

I realized that the lake was quite quiet and it seemed to be too quiet, in fact. So I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if more people can see this landscape? Cause it's an absolutely wonderful landscape and I wanted to share it with people. So we set up a business in 2016 to try and promote Lough Erne and showcase it and bring people to these far flung islands across the lough and tell them the history about the place.

So we bought a couple of boats with a cabin on top, and they're quite nice, luxurious boats that have got leather seats, carpets and wooden floors, and they've got a nice roof and cabin and they can travel a high speed, which is key to the whole business because we can show quite a lot in a short space of time.

Rebecca Miles: So Lough Erne is actually pretty big, isn't it? Tell us a bit more about the size of the water… 

Barry Flanagan: We have a river which is around 100 miles long, and it flows from county cabin, which is south of here. It flows through county Calvin as a river, and then it flows through format as a lake. It widens out and becomes this beautiful Lough Erne, and then it flows as a river again out into the Atlantic and on.

So we have about 60 miles of that is navigable and yeah, it's, it's a landscape which is covered in islands. There's 154 islands across the whole lake, and they all have a story to tell. So it's a pretty amazing place. 

Rebecca Miles: Oh, fabulous. And as in water taxi, you are offering guided tours and that sort of thing?

Barry Flanagan: That's exactly what we do. Yeah. We do guided tours of Lough Erne, bespoke guided tours across the whole lake. So you get into one of our water taxis with a tour guide who then tells you all about history and it's very relaxed. It's quite conversational, the tour. Cause you have your own private boat to yourself.

So if you have a family group or a group of eight people, friends say they can go out and explore this landscape together in a very relaxed atmosphere. 

Rebecca Miles: So it just sounds, as you say, it sounds incredibly rich with history. Can you give us, I mean we've, we've only got half an hour or so. Can you give us a potted history of the area?

Barry Flanagan: Of course, yeah. I suppose the landscape, it was always used as a means of travel. The lake was the main highway through Ireland. If you know the geography of Ireland, you've got the Shannon River, which is the longest river. Well, it connected up with the Erne and the, and the Shannon were known as the ancient highways of Ireland.

So people were traveling this landscape. From way back from when the very first settlers arrived into the country, they arrived into the mouth of the river and would've brought their boats onto the, and would've their homes ands. We have bronze burial, We've monastic sites dotted across islands all across the, We have beautiful plantation castles, which are overlooking Lough Erne all the way around the lake as well.

There's a huge amount of history and the landscape can really help to tell the story of the history of Ireland. Cause this was the means of travel.

Rebecca Miles: So how long, how far back are we talking?

Barry Flanagan: I mean, you can go back. I mean we've stone carvings on islands on, they're said to be back from 3000 years ago.

But the first settlers probably settled on islands as far back as 5,000 years ago on Lough Erne. And we have beautiful stone carvings all around. Which tell the story actually of how these people made their home on islands here on. 

Rebecca Miles: And they lived out on these, these tiny islands? 

Barry Flanagan: So some of them is sort of literally, you know, just little rocks in the water… 

Rebecca Miles: What's, what's the sort of scale of things?

Barry Flanagan: They're quite sizeable. The islands, for example… our town is the centre of Lough Erne, and the town itself is actually built on an island. So all our shops and businesses and churches are all based on this one island in the middle of Lough Erne. So that's very unique in itself. But if you go further up or down the lake, you'll see islands that are about maybe a hundred acres.

Some of them are smaller, 20 acres. They vary in size. You only have to go back about a hundred years ago when there was people living on a lot of these islands. So I would always say like every island tells its own story and he can actually discover a huge amount about island living and how people lived here by just going to an island and talking about the people who live.

Rebecca Miles: I mean, there must have been some in really interesting characters based here over the time. Can you tell us about a few of your favourites?

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, of course. There was a man called John Re Hill who I had a real fondness of. He, he was a real character. He had an on and they called him the last of the islanders of, he was one of the men who lived on an island without a bridge at the last surviving island, and he lived on the island with his wife Sheila.

And they would've farmed the island and fished like a lot of the islanders. But they also had a little café and they used to welcome people off, the lough, people that were cruising up and down the lock in their boats, and they used to come in and visit John and Sheila and John used to love to entertain, so he would take out the fiddle and play them a song, and Sheila would cook them a big slap up meal, and they would then sit maybe into the wee hours discussing the history of over a, over a drink or two.

So he was a, a really nice man. Yeah, there was a, a great place to visit. Yeah. Another person I suppose that comes to mind is a woman called Peggy Elliot. Her nickname was Orange Peggy. She lived on an island on Lough Erne and she lived through to 108… The oldest living islander on Lough Erne

Yeah. So the story behind Peggy Elliott was, or orange Peggy seeing was really big into the orange logs and the orange orders, and she had her own big drum that she used to play on the 12th of July and march around the island, but she used to welcome people into the island as well. And she brewed a bit of a alcohol pochine, as we call it!

And people used to come in and her and get a little bit of drama as well. So she was quite a popular on the lake. The good thing about the islands where the customs man could never find. Where the patching stills were. Cause the elders used to notify each other by boat and tell them if the Bostons were on the way, so they would move the still quickly.

Rebecca Miles: Brilliant. Yeah. There must have been some great hiding spots. 

Barry Flanagan: Oh, definitely. Yeah. No, no shortage, . 

Rebecca Miles: How about the historic sites in the area? You've mentioned castles, ancient stones, monastic ruins. What's what's top of the list for people to see? 

Barry Flanagan: I suppose when people come to Fermanagh, they always, when they go out in the lake, they always go to see one site in particular, and that's Devon Sha, which was a sixth century monastic site with one of the best round towers in the whole of Ireland.

Totally intact, and you can go inside around her as well. And it's, it's just a wonderful structure, about a hundred feet tall. We also have a few other monastic sites with beautiful stone carvings, high crosses, and, and facial carvings of monks dotted all around the, So there's some really unique sites, but one of them I always love to bring people to is a place called State where there's a castle, a 19th century castle overlooking.

And it's got its own boathouse down by the shoreline. You can also see a few of the islands that the estate owned and they had their own Foleys on the island, so the little, little small castles on, on islands as well. So it was a brilliant place for sailing. And again, we love to tell the stories of that landscape and and, and what went on down own promise, including the big ceiling and.

Rebecca Miles: Oh wow. Yes. I mean, as you with all this water around, it must be a great place to spend lots of time outdoors and just being active on the water. What activities are available and where are visit? Where are visitors best basing themselves to explore that? 

Barry Flanagan: Yeah. Well, if you wanted to go into Enniskillen and our main town, it's a great base because you can get a bus there from either airport, Belfast or Dublin, very easily about hour and a half, two hours up the road.

You can also go in out into the countryside and there's a huge amount of activities strewn across the whole of, a lot of it is water based or around the shoreline. And activities you can do is like day boat hire, so you can hire your own boat and skipper it yourself. You can also do the guided tours.

You can also do plenty of your own personal water activities. Paddle boarding cats. You've got canoes. You've also got these new hydro bike spikes that you cycle on the water. How do that work? They're just a little bike with a, with a propeller on the bikes and paddle them around the island. You can actually by bike.

Bike, and we also have electric boards. These electric stand up paddle boards. If you don't want to paddle that is, and you can just stand and use a little accelerator and you can be motored around the lock on your personal watercraft. 

Rebecca Miles: Oh, it sounds wonderfully peaceful on the whole. So no jet skis or anything like that? 

Barry Flanagan: Well, around the town Enniskillen and it's very, yeah, very peaceful. Everything, everybody has to slow down around the towns. And Marinus was, you can only do five knots, so your speed restricted and. Once you get out onto the lake, the faster boats, like the speed boats and the jet skis, they can open up.

But it's such a big lake. You never feel like it's, it's busy. You never feel inundated with boats or you never feel like you're going to get stuck in a traffic jam. It just doesn't happen. 

Rebecca Miles: The lough sounds fabulous. Is it all about the water? Are there any other sort of adventurous activity you can be doing on land?

Barry Flanagan: Absolutely. There's huge amount of walks around the shoreline up into the mountains. We have a really unique mountain trail, qu mountain, and it's been nicknamed the Stairway to Heaven. So you can actually climb from the bottom of the mountain all the way to the top on a boardwalk. And that's attracted a huge amount of people in the last few years.

We have mountains that you can drive to the top of and get views of the lake. You can walk around the shoreline. We've got beautiful shoreline walks all the way around the beautiful stately homes that people can visit and go inside and see what it used to be like. And the stately homes, National Trust properties, there's a huge amount of, And you could easily fill a week or two here on a stay.

Rebecca Miles: Sounds gorgeous. How about the wildlife? What's uh, what can visitors expect to see? 

Barry Flanagan: Yeah. Well, mostly when you're on the lake, you see a lot of bird life. We see a huge amount making their nests and the reeds. Swans and signets. Of course we have migrating birds such as the Canadian geese, and we also have a beautiful bird called the kingfisher.

And we often see the kingfisher flying up and down the banks of Lough Erne our trips. So it's a real trip per customers when they look out the window and they see this a turquoise flash going. Or a kingfisher diving off a branch and catching a fish. Oh, they always love that. 

Rebecca Miles: Is there a particularly good time of year to visit and or time of day even to get out on the water?

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, I suppose. The best time of year is June and July. August. It is always a good time because Fermanagh is quite a small county, although there's more visitors in the summer, it never feels like it's too busy, but if you wanted that peaceful, quiet, relaxing break, the shoulder seasons are perfect.

I mean, you can visit right up until November and we have quite a mild temperate climate. People come here all year round really. I mean, you can get a lovely peaceful break and you can get a boat trip on Lough Erne all year round as well. 

Rebecca Miles: Oh, brilliant. Yeah, that would be good. And you mentioned as well about people being able to take their own boats out. Is that available year round?

Barry Flanagan: Yes, indeed. Yeah. You can hire your own boat to skipper a boat and head out and explore some islands all year round. And in fact, the wintertime, a lot of the fishermen will come here, take a boat, or maybe have a. You show them best, the best fishing spots. And so it's a fantastic place to, to get out in the water, just really and go and explore.

Rebecca Miles: You've recently launched a food tour. Can you tell us some more about that, please? 

Barry Flanagan: Sure. There's a gentleman in Enniskillen here who runs the in skill and taste experience. His name's Mark Edwards and he does a fantastic food. A walking food tour around the island town are in aum, and so his tour has about 11 stops and it, it brings you around the island town and, and tell, tells you all about the different history, the food history.

You get to sample all the local produce, food and drink, and you end up in a, a really beautiful restaurant in the town. 28 of the hollow where you get to experience some of the, the lights of, of Fermanagh and how local our produce can be here. And we've teamed up with Mark to produce this local food experience.

So it's not just on the land, it's also on the lake. And we have a, a pre starter on the boat with three drinks lined up for our customer for when they arrive. We have an hour long boat. Tells you all about the history of, and particular, the food history. And then we go up into the town with Mark and he tells us all about the town.

And you get to stop off in a restaurant, be your starter, another restaurant, be our main course and dessert. So it's a, it's a real treat and a way to see the landscape through food.  

Rebecca Miles: Brilliant. What would people, what can people expect to eat on it? What is the local food?

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, we've got, well, we're well known for pork and beef cause a lot of animals are reared here on islands across Lough Erne.

And the difference between, I suppose, mainland cattle and island cattle and pigs is, is what they're eating. They're eating wild herbs and plants. They're drinking the lake water. Quality of beef we have and the quality of pork is phenomenal. One product called Fermanagh and Black Bacon, which is always part of the food tour.

We've got some lovely gin, a local gin called Boatyard Distillery. I've started brewing gin, and that's part of the food tour. We've got another beer called Inish Max St. Beer, and then we have game as well. Like Duck, for example, is always part of the menu in 28 of the Hollow. So there's some beautiful food to be had on the tour.

Rebecca Miles: Yes, you're making my mouth water. Thank you. Tell us a little bit more about Enniskillen as well. If people are basing themselves there, it sounds like there's fantastic food. What else can people expect?

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, well, with Enniskillen being such a unique town, it's, it's actually an island. As I said before, you know, you can walk around the shoreline of Enniskillen and you really get the experience being on an island.

You understand, although you cross the bridge to get onto it, you can understand that it's an island when you walk around that shoreline. So I would always say that's a great way to orientate. Do that first of all, then get up into the, into the middle of the town. The town is a beautiful English market, town layer.

Which was designed after the plantation of, And so when people walk up into the town, they're walking through streets. They haven't changed much in hundreds of years, and we have loads of family run businesses. If you're into your shopping, it's a great place for getting into these lovely little unique shops, which are all family run.

We're really lucky because the, the island town hasn't been affected as much as other smaller towns that where, where people have seen shops closing and such. Like we, we've all our business are, are thriving. 

Rebecca Miles: That's good to hear. We should cover a few practicalities as well. Are there places that you'd recommend people to stay and how easy is it to get around Fermanagh?

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, there's any amount of places to stay. We have, you know, we've got really unique places you can choose to stay in, like a bubble dome, for example. We've got a place that has forest Spa where you can walk through this forest spa, which is mostly outdoors and you walk from treatment to treatment through a forest trail and you can stay in a bubble dome overnight on the site and you can be looking out at the stars while you stay there.

Another you have, you've got plenty of glamping pods all over the county now that become very popular and cause we're in a late land. The glamping pods just aren't any old ordinary glamping pod. They're overlooking the lake. You've got these wonderful views. Lake Shore walks your own personal hot tub outside overlooking the lake as well.

So fantastic places to stay. We've got beautiful hotels like five star hotels with their own golf courses like the locker resort, manor, houses along the shoreline. There's a lot of choice actually when it comes to accommodation, but I would say book early because in the summer months, Fermanagh is always booked out.

Rebecca Miles: Be organized people! And do you tend to need a car to get around when you're there or is it cycling possible or public transport? 

Barry Flanagan: A car is definitely available because if you want to see the county, Really you need to get out into the countryside locations outside the town itself.

The likes of the Marble Arch caves, which is a very unique cave system, requires a car to get there, although there is now bus service from in a as well. So, but there's a huge amount to see around the county if you do have a car, the base yourself and as well. 

Rebecca Miles: And what's the, the marble arch? Can you tell us more about those?

Barry Flanagan: Sure. Well, we we're very lucky to have this Marble Arch caves, Global Geo Park here in county Fermanagh. So people come here and they get to see the Marble Arch caves, which is this the most unique and the best show caves in Europe. So when you get down underground, you get to see these types that have taken thousands of years to form.

There's a little underground war, which brings you through your cave system and includes a small boat trip as well underneath the, So it's really unique and the Geo Park is a much wider, expansive part of the landscape. And it includes islands on rocker. It includes shoreline walks, but there's loads of great infrastructure for people to, to experience when they're here.

So, walks along the shoreline, walks up in the mountains, bike trails are all part of the Geo Park as well, and you get to understand a lot more about the county. 

Rebecca Miles: Oh, wow. I mean, it sounds like you could spend weeks and weeks exploring as, as you are lucky enough to do!

Barry Flanagan: Yes. Yeah, definitely. Without a doubt. 

Rebecca Miles: Let's wrap things up last with a, with a final question. If one of your oldest friends was visiting for the day, hadn't seen for ages, how would you show off the area? Best and sort of how, what, how would your dream day pan out? 

Barry Flanagan: I suppose there'd be no surprise that it would be on the water.

Rebecca Miles: Of course. I was hoping you'd say that . 

Barry Flanagan: So I would definitely take them out, probably take them out on a, maybe a canoe or trip early in the morning and get to see the sunrise across the lake. We could head out to one of the islands for lunch, go for a picnic, maybe in the water taxi, or maybe go out in a sailboat.

You know, there's so many ways to experience the water, but definitely an picnic is the way I would spend the. Plenty of food and just graze over a few hours while looking out across the landscape and, you know, maybe go for a hike later in the evening, go up to one of the, the hills overlooking the shoreline.

There's lots of experiences that you can do with friends across the lake, so I always love to treat new friends too when they come to. Take them out on the boat and, and show them the place because I love it. I love the landscape. You know? 

Rebecca Miles: Definitely. I mean, how do you choose which island?

Barry Flanagan: Oh, exactly. That's the, that is the tough part. It's, it's very seasonal as well. You know, it depends on the season. If it's may, I'll take people out early May to an island called Bluebell Island. Islands just covered in blue bells and you're just walking through this forest of blue bells, which is amazing. You can go to other islands at the height of summer and they have, they have their own little bars and restaurants, so you can go up there for a little bit of entertainment as well.

So, There's a huge range and a huge choice. If you're into your wildlife, there's islands just to see the wildlife as well. So, so much choice really. It is hard to choose with a hundred islands. Definitely. Yeah, 

Rebecca Miles: absolutely. Well, people just need to get on a boat with you and start exploring it sounds. 

Barry Flanagan: Yeah, no, definitely.

And they're always welcome. We'd love to have more folk visit Fermanagh and I'd love to take them out and show them. 

Rebecca Miles: Thank you so much for your time today, Barry. It's been great to chat

Barry Flanagan: Thank you, Rebecca. Appreciate your time as well. Thank you very much.