No tropical beaches, but this island is still a paradise
We have a habit of associating islands with sultry lagoons, sand and bright colour. Even the medieval Irish illuminated bibles with islands of palm trees and parrots. When they looked out their windows, however, they saw monochrome islands grazed by damp cows, and clouds lumbering across low horizons to tangle themselves in monastery towers.
Today we escape to tropical islands for sun and heedless holidays. The monks were escaping troublesome vikings and the devil's temptations, and looked for spiritual contemplation. If that sounds dull, you'd be wrong. The place they chose is one of Ireland's loveliest spots, yet hidden away from marauding tourists.
Enniskillen has a high street fine enough for a Jane Austen movie set. Banks and churches culminate in a Renaissance-style town hall, and plaques recount where old barracks and breweries once stood. In-the-know locals come here for good food, fine pubs, country rambles, and boating and fishing.
Enniskillen is the largest town (population 18,500) in Fermanagh, a county tucked into the south-west corner of Northern Ireland. It's lightly populated, rural, verdant and unconcerned with modern urgency – Fermanagh Time is the equivalent of Spain's manana – although it occasionally bursts out in golf resorts and craft distilleries.
Although far inland, Enniskillen's original core sits on an island as its Gaelic name indicates: Inis Ceithleann or Cethlenn's Island. This being Ireland, Cethlenn was predictably an ancient warrior woman who came to an unfortunate end in an incomprehensible feud.
Irish mythology and history are grim yet wonderfully entertaining when related by garrulous John Lomasney, tour manager on my Collette country-intensive escorted journey in Ireland. His anecdotes range from the schoolboy antics of Oscar Wilde, who studied in Enniskillen, to the shenanigans of the medieval Mag Uidhir or Maguire clan.
Enniskillen Castle was the Maguire seat and controlled the choke point between Lower and Upper Lough Erne. In a Europe of twee castles this is the real deal: grim and solid, although its twin-towered watergate makes for a pretty backdrop for passing boaters.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
9 hours ago
- West Australian
Hidden food gems in the US you have have to try
Nothing quite beats finding your own little gem of culinary pleasure. The US may have a reputation for fast food, doughnuts and bad coffee, but a recent trip showed this is undeserved. We took to the side streets, as we have done in London and Italy, hoping to stumble upon a local cafe, bar or market that made the adventure worth it — and we were rewarded handsomely. I love the thrill of discovering an unassuming diner with incredible food, a hidden treasure that becomes the highlight of your trip. If you're ever in these parts of America, do yourself a favour — pull up a seat, and grab a menu. 604, E 1300 S, Salt Lake City, Utah A local corner diner serving up homestyle breakfasts across the road from Liberty Park. All the American classics are here, some with a twist. They have pancakes (of course) but in this part of the world they come in the form of a sandwich, with eggs and bacon as the filling. Omelettes are a main attraction, with nine variations to choose from. But my pick on the menu is the corned beef hash. It's slow-roasted in-house, grilled with onion, mushroom, green peppers and potatoes, topped off with two eggs — $US11.50 ($17.85). We shared this breakfast, but came back the next day and had one each it was so good. 329 Donelson Pike #201, Nashville, Tennessee Located in Nashville's Donelson neighbourhood, this is a big, modern-looking space with a great outdoor dining deck. The menu draws inspiration from the dining traditions of the south and takes you on a delicious trip through Tennessee and Mississippi. The meals are big (we are in America after all) so you can easily share these meals. Some of the standouts are the breakfast casserole, country fried steak biscuit, fried catfish sandwich, and sweet potato pancakes. However, I couldn't look past the shrimp and grits — Gulf shrimp sauteed in garlic butter with bacon, slow-cooked okra and tomatoes over grits, plus a biscuit — $US18. Grits is basically a porridge made from ground dried corn, and if you've never had it before (or even if you have) you need to try this version. 416 Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee After a night of bar-hopping and live music along Nashville's Broadway, there's nothing better than a feast of meat. Most of the bars along this strip offer the same fare, but for a more authentic and unique southern experience, head to Jack's Bar-B-Que. This canteen-style servery carves up Tennessee pork shoulder, beef brisket, turkey, ribs, smoked sausage and smoked chicken for your late-night cravings. There's always a line, but it moves quickly. You choose your meat. My choice was the two-meat combo — St Louis-style ribs and Texas beef brisket — and they cut it in front of you. You then move on down the line to choose from an array of traditional sides including baked beans, green beans, corn, baked apples, coleslaw and potato salad, and crowd favourite mac and cheese. It's carnivore heaven! The two-meat combo plus two sides and bread costs $US24.20, and you can easily share it between two people. 613 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana When you take your seat in the vine-covered courtyard in this legendary New Orleans restaurant, you feel like you've been transported back in time. They have daily jazz brunches headlined by a buffet of Creole classics such as southern corn grits, chicken & sausage gumbo, turtle soup, fried catfish, shrimp etouffee, red beans & rice, stewed okra, creamed spinach, and biscuits and cornbread. For dessert you can't go past the bananas Foster and vanilla ice-cream, or pecan pie and homemade whipped cream. For me, the turtle soup was a standout and worth the visit alone. The soup itself is more like a stew with gravy-like consistency, and the turtle meat actually tastes like beef — it was delicious. Jazz brunch buffet — $US36 (don't eat beforehand). 200 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, New York OK, so I know there are thousands of great places to eat in New York, many of them very well known, but I hadn't heard of this vibrant Italian marketplace before. We stumbled on it while walking just off Broadway near the Flatiron Building. It's like walking into an episode of Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy. Comprising a variety of restaurants and food counters (Roma-style pizzas, rotisserie meats, focaccia and panini) plus market-style counters (seafood, butcher, pasta, fruit and vegetables), it also has a genuine Italian espresso bar, bakery and retail items. There's something here for everyone's taste. It's the American/Italian version of Borough Market in London. Prosciutto crudo panino 'Emiliano' — $US19.90 (these are big enough to share between two). 179 E Houston Street, New York Just down the street from Katz's Deli (another must-visit New York destination) this Jewish institution has been appetising New York since 1914. Used as a noun, 'appetising' is most easily understood as 'the foods one eats with bagels'. The menu is pretty straightforward — bagels. But you do have a big choice of what you have with it. You choose either salmon (six versions), cured salmon (four versions), smoked fish (eight versions) or herring (nine versions), plus your choice of spreads and sides. The bagels, freshly baked in-house, were the best I tried in New York. Like a lot of places in New York there can be a line-up around breakfast and lunchtime, but there are as many servers behind the deli counter as patrons ordering, so it was a fairly quick experience. A classic bagel and lox (salmon) bagel — $US17 (do not share — have it all to yourself).
West Australian
a day ago
- West Australian
A famous Aussie pub at the centre of Netflix's true crime series Last Stop Larrimah hits the market
An infamous Aussie pub at the centre of an eight-year-old outback mystery and a Netflix series that gripped the world has hit the market. The Larrimah Hotel in the Northern Territory is for sale for the first time since the popular two-part series was released in 2023. The show delved into the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty who was one of town's 12 residents and a regular at the pub when he went missing. The Irish-born 70-year-old was last seen with his red kelpie cross Kellie leaving the Pink Panther Hotel in Larrimah on December 16, 2017. Publican Steve Baldwin bought the pub from Barry Sharpe in 2018 not long after Mr Moriarty went missing. The hotel is located about 500km south of Darwin in the middle of the Northern Territory along the Stuart Highway and is a popular stopover for travellers and tourists keen to know more about the town where Mr Moriarty disappeared. Real estate agent Warren Andrews is selling the property listed for $795,00 saying, 'You have to see it to believe it'. He describes the hotel as everything you would expect and want in a 'true blue Aussie bush pub.' 'From the pink panthers, the giant draught stubble, to the resident emus and crocodiles, this pub is steeped in history and mystique,' he said. Mr Baldwin told NewsWire there was more to the pub's history than the tale about one of its most regular punters disappearing. 'The pub will be 100 years old in five years, it was created during the war by the military and played a big part,' he said. 'We're at the end of the railway line from Darwin, where a lot of troops would come from down from, then go south to Alice Springs and then to Mount Isa and end up back here on the train. 'They built an airstrip here after the bombing in Darwin. 'There were nearly 10,000 people here which is huge, now there is eight.' Mr Baldwin said three of its residents had died since Last Stop Larrimah first aired on Netflix. 'They were all geriatrics,' he said. 'According to Carl, who was in the Netflix show and lived across the road, he reckons there was no beer on tap here for about 30 years,' he said. 'There were taps in the cool room when I got here that weren't being used so we opened the place up and rebuilt the bar.' Mr Baldwin said it was hard to quantify how many visitors passed through the hotel each year but more and more people stopped to find out more about the mysterious town. He said a new gas plant in the Beetaloo Basin was due to start soon which would bring more workers to the region. The pub also comes with two crocodiles called Sneaky Sam and Agro that live out the back of the hotel and are fed by Mr Baldwin. 'We say we are selling the crocs and we'll chuck in the pub,' he said. When asked how much a crocodile was worth, Mr Baldwin replied, '$795,000.' 'I just want to slow down a bit and retire,' he said. 'It's a good opportunity for a low level entry into a good business that has lots of opportunity going forward. 'You don't often get a 100-year-old building here in the tropics, or in the Territory, or one at the centre of a Netflix series, and he still hasn't been found. 'There was a reward of $250,000 to find out what happened to Paddy Moriarty, and in the budget last week the treasurer upped it to $500,000. 'I don't know it will ever be solved, and the old publican has died. 'Fran still lives here, she's 81 years old now, she'll stand on the balcony or come in here and say, 'He's leaving, don't go missing now'.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Tourists run for cover as Italy's Mount Etna erupts in fiery show of smoke and ash
Milan: Sicily's Mount Etna has put on a fiery show, sending a cloud of smoke and ash several kilometres into the air, but officials said the activity posed no danger to the population. The level of alert due to the volcanic activity was raised at the Catania airport, but no immediate interruptions were reported. An official update on Monday (Tuesday AEST) declared the ash cloud emission had ended by the afternoon. Italy's INGV National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the spectacle on Europe's most active volcano was caused when part of the south-east crater collapsed, resulting in hot lava flows. It was the 14th eruptive phase in recent months. The area of danger was confined to the summit of Etna, which was closed to tourists as a precaution, according to Stefano Branca, an INGV official in Catania. Sicily's President, Renato Schifani, said lava flows emitted in the eruption had not passed the natural containment area 'and posed no danger to the population'. The event was captured on video and in photos that went viral on social media. Tremors from the eruption were widely felt in the towns and villages on Mount Etna's flanks, Italian media reported. Video showed tourists running along a path on the flank of the vast volcano with smoke billowing some distance in the background. Excursions are popular on Etna, which is some 3300 metres high, with a surface area of some 1200 square kilometres. One student, from Trinity College in Dublin, told Irish broadcaster RTE News that her group had just arrived when the volcano erupted, London's Telegraph reported, prompting their tour guides to yell at them to get back in the minibus.
