Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts About Enniskillen Town

Ireland’s Only Island Town: A unique distinction that sets Enniskillen apart.
Award-Winning Welcome: Voted Booking.com's Most Welcoming Town in the UK for three consecutive years.
Purple Flag Status: Recognized for its thriving evening and night-time economy.
The island of Enniskillen measures about 800 metres long, covering an area of about 68 acres.
Enniskillen is said to have derived its name form the Irish ‘Inis Ceithleann’ meaning ‘the island of Cathleen’
Up until the early 1600s Enniskillen was mostly under the rule of the Maguire clan. Enniskillen Castle was the seat of the Maguires from the early 1400s.
James I entrusted Governorship of Enniskillen to William Cole, an English planter from Devon in 1607
Enniskillen ‘Diamond’ , due to its sloping terrain, is one of the smallest diamonds in Northern Ireland – a diamond is the traditional centre of all Ulster Plantation towns.
Enniskillen’s central street changes its name 6 times between the East and West bridges at either end.
Enniskillen is unique in the British Isles in having raised two regiments – The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (infantry) and The 6th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (cavalry). The two statues on the Townhall tower represent the two Enniskillen regiments – The Dragoon faces the main street.
Enniskillen has one of the longest twinning relationships in Europe – it’s twinned with Brackwede in Germany since 1958.
Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett went to school at Portora, as did Henry Francis Lyte who wrote ‘ Praise My Soul The King of Heaven’ and ‘Abide with Me’
Adrian Dunbar comes from Enniskillen.
The pianists and composers Joan and Valerie Timbel were part of the Enniskillen family which founded the Impartial Reporter newspaper. The town also produced the artists TP Flanagan and William Scott, who were influenced and guided by another fine painter, Kathleen Bridle, a local art teacher.
The Clinton Centre was built on the derelict site of the former St Michael’s School (Reading Rooms) which was the scene of the terrible Remembrance Day Bomb in 1987. It’s the first time that a public building in Ireland has been named after a living (former) President of the USA.
The eleven bronze doves on the War Memorial commemorate the eleven people who died in 1987 . Their names have been added to the dead of the two World Wars.
On 14th November 1993 Diana, Princess of Wales, laid the last stone on the Peace Cairn below East Bridge Street built by young people in memory of the eleven people who lost their lives in the Enniskillen bomb in 1987.
Coles Monument honours Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, son of the First Earl of Enniskillen. The column is 96 feet high with the statue adding a further 10 feet. Sir Galbraith faces south-west so that, on a clear morning, he can see his ancestral home, Florence Court. There are 108 steps to the top!
Enniskillen’s Cathedral is named after St Macartin who was said to be a man of great physical strength and who used to carry St Patrick during the saint’s declining years. The Cathedral has a peal of 10 bells.It is believed that the William and Mary bells were cast in 1828 from a canon used at the Battle of the Boyne.
St Michael’s Church is the largest in Enniskillen and was built in just 5 years. It opened on St Patrick’s Day 1875
Poet Frank Ormsby was educated at St. Michael's College in Enniskillen.