Town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Enniskillen
A town on an island, where a spilled sack of biscuits gave a famous battle its name and Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett both went to school.
Key information
- County
- County Fermanagh
- Nation
- Northern Ireland
- Population
- about 13,800 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Island setting between Upper and Lower Lough Erne, Enniskillen Castle, Portora Royal School, the Inniskilling regiments
- Famous people
- Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett and Henry Francis Lyte all went to school here
- Football clubs
- Enniskillen Rangers
About Enniskillen
The town that sits in the middle of a river
Enniskillen is built on an island. The River Erne runs between Upper and Lower Lough Erne, and the town grew up on the strip of land between the two, with water on both sides and bridges linking it to the shore. The position made it the natural gateway to the lakes. Whoever held Enniskillen controlled the crossing, which is why it spent centuries being fought over. The Irish name, Inis Ceithleann, points to a legend. Ceithleann was said to be the wife of Balor of the Evil Eye, a one-eyed giant of Irish myth. She is supposed to have been wounded in battle and to have died on the island, giving it her name.
The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits
The castle at the water's edge was the stronghold of the Maguires, the chieftains of Fermanagh, from the fifteenth century. In February 1594 English forces captured it. Hugh Maguire's men then besieged the English garrison, and on 7 August 1594 they ambushed a relief column sent up with supplies at a ford near the town. The supplies were lost, and the biscuits scattered across the water gave the fight the name it still has: the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits. The castle returned to Maguire control in 1595. Early in the seventeenth century, during the Plantation of Ulster, it passed to William Cole, and the modern town grew around it. Its water gate and its turrets still dominate the waterfront. Inside, the castle now holds the Fermanagh County Museum and the Inniskillings Museum.
Why a Fermanagh town gave its name to regiments
In 1689 the townspeople raised their own forces to hold Enniskillen for William of Orange. Those men became the Inniskilling regiments, and the name stuck for three centuries, in the spelling the army preferred. The Inniskilling Dragoons and the Inniskilling Fusiliers fought across the world, and the Dragoons rode in the cavalry charge at Waterloo in 1815. Their flags, uniforms and stories are kept at the castle, so one of the best military museums in Ireland sits inside a Maguire fortress.
Three famous schoolboys and a column
Portora Royal School was founded in 1608 and moved to its site on the edge of town in 1778. It taught Oscar Wilde, who was a pupil there in the 1860s. Samuel Beckett followed in the early 1920s. Henry Francis Lyte, who wrote the hymn 'Abide with Me', also went there. A small island town can claim a hymn writer, a great wit and the author of Waiting for Godot, all in one school register. On Fort Hill stands Cole's Monument, a tall column put up in 1857 for General Galbraith Lowry Cole, a Peninsular War commander from the local family. Climb its 108 steps and you get views across the town and the lakes. The town's cleverest trick is its pubs. Blake's of the Hollow, a Victorian bar on Church Street, still has its snugs and old-fashioned fittings, and is one of the best-loved in the province.
A lakeland playground, and a town that carries on
The lough is the main attraction. Boat trips run to Devenish Island, where a monastic settlement founded in the sixth century has a round tower that survives in unusually good condition. Anglers come for the coarse fishing, and cruisers and canoes fill the water in summer. Nearby are the Marble Arch Caves, Florence Court and Crom Castle. In June 2013 the town's surroundings were in the news when the G8 summit was held at the Lough Erne Resort, with world leaders arriving in a county better known for cattle and cruisers. On 8 November 1987 a bomb at the Remembrance Day ceremony killed eleven people. The town responded with dignity, and the day is still remembered each year. For sport, Fermanagh Gaelic football brings out the county's passion, and Enniskillen Rangers fly the flag in football. Locals say Enniskillen is best seen from the water.