We then drove to Armagh, which I had not really been aware of as an ecclesiastical centre, but it is, as it is home to not one, but two cathedrals, and not one but two associated  Primates of Ireland.  On first thought you would think it would be less confusing if both cathedrals were not called “St Patrick’s”, but I suppose there is some historical justification for this under the circumstances (hard to see what else the newer Catholic one could call itself after the takeover of the original).

We went to see both of them and they were both rather good, although I have to say that I liked the newer one better.

Catholic Cathedral Outside

Catholic Cathedral Inside

Church of Ireland Outside

Then we went to look at a little museum which had been created in a old records building and had just time for a quick fish supper (they call fish and chips that in NI as well as Scotland) before shooting off to catch the ferry.  The image at the top of the posting is the view from the balcony at the back of the museum.

We didn’t get home until after ten, so it was a quick hello to the cats and then off to bed.

We stopped at Knockninny on the far side of the Lough, with the idea being to take a walk to see St Ninian’s well, a ruined castle and then have lunch at the hotel.  The first two were stymied when we discovered that a giant (I mean giant!) quarry had been built into the side of the hill we had been going to walk up.  If the interesting sites were still there, we couldn’t find the way to them, so we went for a walk down a rather agreeable road and looked at some nice baby farm animals.

As a slight digression – the lambs and calves (and indeed their parents) seemed to be full of the joys of spring, which is one of the main reasons I could never really be a full on vegetarian or (more so) vegan.  I can’t help thinking that when well treated and humanely killed, at least a cow or sheep has some kind of life for the time allotted, and personally I would rather have what ever time that was in a green field in NI rather than never existing at all.  Also I have a personal preference for animals in fields over soya beans and more people in the world…

We walked back to the boat and waited for nearly an hour until the hotel was due to be open for lunch.  By this time there was little food left on the boat, particularly as I had fed most of what was left of the bread to swans that morning.  When we got to the hotel, however, we discovered that it only opened in the evenings in May.

So we went back to Enniskillen, visited the supermarket and didn’t get to go to Cafe Merlot that night either as they had a function on.  I discovered from N the next day that we could have gone to White Island but he hadn’t wanted it to because it was raining…

The picture is the Knockninny Country House and Marina which I might have been able to recommend more highly if it had been open.

At one point going through a channel that was clearly marked to be ok – we definitely heard the boat scrape the bottom, and although we didn’t get stuck, this raised R’s stress levels no end.  We’d planned to eat at the Watermill Lodge restaurant – but looking at the chart – it was marked as being in an area of water too shallow to enter.  N and J both recalled, however, that the man at the hire company had said that a new channel had been cut and it was now ok.   An argument ensued and tempers got very frayed on both sides…

So I went off to walk round Crom (a National Trust Reserve) minus R who stayed on the boat.  Crom was very pretty with a ruined castle, a romantic summer house, and a huge abandoned walled garden.  It is also the seat of Lord Erne who has a nice house, but doesn’t let plebs round to see it.

It was a rather ‘Goily’ day from a weather perspective, alternately boiling hot and pouring with rain.  We saw some amazing wild flowers including more garlic that you could shake a chef at…

Anyway, when we got back to the boat a few beers calmed everything down and we did go to the Watermill Lodge.  The new channel was there alright, but when we got to the mooring, it was quite windy.  The meal in the restaurant was really good, although it was a bit too ‘pretentious French’ for my taste.  I had smoked salmon, slow cooked beef and then (unusually for me) a selection of mini-deserts.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the boat our troubles began, as it was rocking about against its moorings making a loud and annoying squeak every few seconds.  J had described the night he spent moored near Great Yarmouth under similar conditions as ‘like trying to sleep in a washing machine’ – this was the same only worse, rather like trying to sleep in during a latex fetishists’ convention.  With the aid of my new noise cancellation headphones I managed to get a little sleep – poor R didn’t even manage that.

In the afternoon N again informed us that Castle Coole was “about a mile away”.  Again I was foolish enough to take him at his word.  Again I wore the same uncomfortable shoes.  Again it was at least two miles to the park entrance and then another substantial walk to the Castle, which wasn’t a real castle, but a neo-classical stately home.

Unfortunately you weren’t supposed to take pictures in the house and as they were watching me – I couldn’t.  Not sure I see the rationale for banning (non-flash) photography…  I’d highly recommend the tea shop – the lemon meringue pie was something else (but I can feel myself putting on weight by the moment).

Back at the moorings we have now acquired a smart card so we have mains power and can recharge everything without needing to put the engines on.  Amazing the feeling of dissipated luxury this gives us….

The pottery tour was interesting – particularly watching the traditional craftsmanship going into making the traditional baskets and flowers.  Some of the old photos were illuminating – in 1890s all the people in the workshop were men, but now at least 80% of the people doing the fine work were women.  I bought a nice vase for me and some dinner plates for N’s birthday – now all I have to do is find a place for the vase where the cats can’t get it.

We had just a bit of bother getting the boat turned round to leave the mooring.  It took several attempts and we may just have bumped it a few times – partially because it was a tight turn, partially because of the poor visibility, and partially due to over-enthusiasm by the Captain.

By the time we arrived at Devenish Island (Gaelic – Island of the Ox), the weather had improved a lot and we had a walk to see the remains of the monastery founded by St Molaise.  I was disappointed not to be able to climb the tower as it was locked – doubtless another stupid health and safety regulation.

Then we headed back to Enniskillen – we’d hoped to eat at Cafe Merlot but we got a bit carried away playing D&D and left it too late.  So we had dinner at the Linen Room which looked nice and had cheap drinks but rather indifferent food (tinned peas and about six chips with my steak).

Northern Ireland is not very hilly but we managed to find one hill with a great view of the Lough.  N and J did not tackle the climb very well (they do not take enough exercise) so by the time they got to the top we had been there for 15 minutes and had begun to think they had given up.

In the afternoon, we pootled over to Lusty Beg Island.  R was all for sitting on the boat in the sun with a drink, but N wanted to see some interesting Celtic stones which were on Boa Island.  All four of us set off with N informing us it was ‘just over a mile’.  After we had been walking for half an hour, R checked the map, to discover that this estimate was more than a little optimistic, and it was more like three miles each way.  At this point, R returned to his original plan and went back to the boat for a beer and a sleep – the rest of us went on and found the stones were well worth seeing, set in a tiny picturesque country graveyard.

We then had all the way back to walk, by which time my feet were very sore in the new deck shoes I would not have worn if I had known we were in for a long trek.

Finally, we set off for Belleek (home of the world famous pottery).  We had another great meal at the eclectic “Black Cat Cove” and fell into exhausted sleep back at our mooring.

While I am mentioning Norfolk – this was actually six years ago – and it interesting to reflect that the four of us then had the grand total of two electronic devices with a requirement for regular recharges i.e. two iPads (well we also had feature phones but they didn’t really need recharged often).  This time the tally was nineteen – J three (two WPs and an iPad), R four (iPhone, Android Phone, iPad, Linux Laptop), Me five (WP, Android, Surface, Fire, headphones), N six (two cameras, Android phone, Android tablet, Windows laptop, toothbrush), which made it a real challenge keeping everything running to the extent that we were fighting over the plug sockets.

We visited Tully castle, which was a ruin and looked very romantic in the sunshine.  The old gardens had been abandoned and had gone to seed, but the remnants of the box hedges and clumps of herbs could still be seen.

I’ve never seen such a place for wild flowers as Northern Ireland

Also the blossom has been pretty fantastic everywhere this year, but was particularly good here.

We had a nice lunch on our sundeck and then set off for our next destination – but disaster struck.  When we came in to the next jetty, the bow thrusters completely failed to operate.  The only engineer available from Manor Marine on a Sunday afternoon was already out on a call, so reluctantly we had to return all the way back up the Lough to where we started.  We then had to moor on a jetty with thousands of jet skis while we waited until we could be fixed the next morning.  Not a happy evening.

Then we went to see the Marble Arch caves which are part of a huge Unesco Geopark (I’d never heard of one of these before).  Apparently they were where the Beric Dondarion scenes in Game of Thrones were filmed – but I kind of doubt this now as it was never mentioned on the guided tour.  First we went on a brief boat trip and then we went round the caves.

We were told the story of how when they were preparing for the caves to be opened to the public in 1980s – some vandals broke in.  They threw stones at a huge stalactite and broke the end off it.  With some degree of luck, the broken bit fell on to the sandy beach and was intact, so after some research at the University of Belfast, they developed a special gel which they used to stick it back on.  As these things grow so slowly (1cm in 1000 years) it will be another 80 years before anyone knows whether it has ‘taken’ and started to grow again.

Then we went and picked up our cruiser.  I had ordered us a baseball cap each – N’s said “Captain” (because he drove the boat and parked it), R said “Security” (because that is what he is in to), mine said “Galley Slave” (because I made all the meals and cleaned up after everyone), J’s said “Drunken Sailor” (because, well….).  Needless to say J refused to be photographed in it.  The boat was great apart from two features a) the electrical power was off an invertor which would only charge our numerous electronic devices when the engines were on b) the toilets were a bit sort of basic.  You had to vigorously pump a handle to deposit “deposits” into a tank which was of strictly limited size, so we tried to set a policy of “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown – wait until you can go on shore”.  Some of us were better at following the policy than others.  The owners had put fresh flowers and a Bushmills miniature out for R.  R may be needing this as he finds boats stressful.

We set off with lovely weather and ended the day with another large, tasty and unhealthy meal in “The Mayfly Inn”.  I have a feeling I may need to be on a diet when we get back.

The ferry crossing was quite fun although I would not recommend the coffee – someone should tell Stena that ‘Barista’ does not involve pushing a button on a machine.  The views over to Belfast were nice.

We arrived in Enniskillen later in the day and went for a pooter about.  Everything was lovely and peaceful, and it was quite unlike what the name unfortunately still conjures up for people of my generation.  Hopefully in time the memories of the troubles will all fade.

The town is on an island and has a nice castle which we will be seeing later in the week.  Also a good fountain.

We saw the sister boat to the one we would be picking up the next day – the “Noble Commander”

Then we had a decent dinner in the Enniskillen hotel, though I am not sure what the poet Oscar would have made of his name being associated with a “Wilde Burger”.