County Fermanagh

Fermanagh is one of 32 Counties of Ireland, one of nine counties in Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland.  Fermanagh spans an area of 1,851  square kms (715 square miles), accounting for 13.2% of the landmass of Northern Ireland.  Nearly a third of the county is covered by lakes and waterways, including Upper and Lower Lough Erne and the River Erne.  Forests cover 14% of the landmass (42,000 hectares).  It is the only county in Northern Ireland that does not border Lough Neagh.  Enniskillen is the largest County Town and an Island Town.

The county has three prominent upland areas:

• the expansive West Fermanagh Scarplans to the southwest of Lough Erne, which rise to about 350m,
• the Slieve Beagh hills, situated to the east on the Monaghan border, and
• the Cuilcagh mountain range, located along Fermanagh's southern border, which contains Cuilcagh, the county's highest point, at 665m.

The county borders: County Tyrone, County Monaghan, Co Cavan, Co Leitrim and Co Donegal and is by far the least populous of Northern Ireland's six counties, with just over one-third the population of Tyrone.  It is approximately 120 km (75 miles) from Belfast and 160 km (99 miles) from Dublin.

The National Trust manages three sites of historic and natural beauty in the county:  Crom Castle, Florence Court and Castle Coole. The oldest sediments in the county are found north of Lough Erne. These so-called red beds were formed approximately 550 million years ago.  Extensive sandstone can be found in the eastern part of the county, laid down during the Devonian period, 400 million years ago.  Much of the rest of the county's sediments are shale and limestone dating from the Carboniferous period354 to 298 million years ago. These softer sediments have produced extensive cave systems such as the Shannon Caves, the Marble  Arch Caves and the Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills. The carboniferous shale exists in several counties of northwest Ireland, an area known colloquially as the Lough Allen basin.

For more information on Co Fermanagh