Ted--Thanks so much for your trip report. My husband and I hope to go to NI in the early fall. My people came from the area between Limavady and Coleraine and his came from County Tipp. Linda In a message dated 6/15/99 10:23:49 PM, [email protected] writes: << Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:43:50 -0700 From: "Ted Lunny" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]_van> Subject: Northern Ireland Trip Report- part travel and part genealogy Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am posting this as well to the Fermanagh group. If there are any questions, feel free to email me. Northern Ireland The following is a summary of the 7 days that my wife and I spent in Northern Ireland in May of 1999. It blends family history with the "tourist" aspects. G.B.P. means British pounds. Lough is lake. As I had already been in Europe for some weeks first, we stayed in Belfast for one night so my wife could get be accustomed to the time changes. The following morning I spent a few hours in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland on Balmoral Avenue. I had previously used a professional researcher to visit PRONI, so I wasn't really looking for any new information, it was more curiousity as I had read much about it through the newsgroups. The staff are very helpful. Since my family is from Fermanagh, I purchased the excellent publication, "Guide to County Sources: Fermanagh" for future reference. I then browsed through the various publications which are available there, made a few photocopies, and left before lunch. There is an excellent description on their website of what to expect, physical layout, and records held. We then purchased an excellent transportation pass for 7 days for 35 G.B.P. which gave us unlimited use of the bus and train systems. We left in the early afternoon on the Antrim coastal bus and was overwhelmed by the beautiful seaside scenery for the next four hours along the eastern and northern coastline until we arrived in Coleraine. We had about 5 minutes to catch the train to Londonderry so did not linger. We spent the night in "Derry", and had two more bus rides through Omagh in Tyrone, before arriving at our prime destination of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh. The bus rides on public transportation were wonderful, on time, and an opportunity to mingle with the locals. We stayed in Enniskillen for three nights in one of the nicest hotels anywhere. It's called the "Killyhevlin", and it's about a mile from the town. The prices were reasonable from a U.K. standpoint, with dinner and breakfast included in the mid week special. It's located right on Lough Erne in a nice setting. The bus station in Enniskillen serves the entire area. The next morning we headed to Lisnaskea, which is where my ancestors are from. The townland is Drumhose, and thanks to some folks on the "Northern Ireland and Fermanagh" groups, I was quickly able to find the exact spot. They had recommended a map called the "Fermanagh Lakeland, outdoor pursuits map and navigation guide, Upper Lough Erne" which is 2.5 inches to the mile, and has many of the townlands listed in that area. I picked it up at the Enniskillen tourist centre for about 5 G.B.P. Once in Lisnaskea, I hired a taxi for an hour for 15 G.B.P. who took us in about 10 minutes to Drumhose. The townland itself has a few older buildings on top of a small hill, with three relatively new houses and barns. There was no problem taking some pictures from one of the houses since as the owner of the house was the sister of the taxi driver. I knew there would not be much there to see but it was emotional nevertheless. I took many pictures, picked up some stones to bring back, and headed to the nearest cemetary at Agalaugher, which is well known in the area. We spent some time there as it's very close to Drumhose and may be gravesite where some of my ancestors may be buried. The stones are mainly old and faded, and I had already known of all the names that were documented here as they had been transcribed years ago. Mine are not included, but we enjoyed this old place. We then headed back to Lisnaskea and spent some time at the Market Square which was created in 1841, for trade purposes. Later that day, back in Ennislkillen, we visted Ennilkillen Castle, where they had some publications for sale. I couldn't believe my eyes when there was a lovely book called, "Lisnaskea Conservation Area", which describes the possible future of this area, but more importantly for me, describes the history of the area. It had old maps, well written histories, and pictures. It fills in some information that I got from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the parishes of County Fermanagh, Volume 4 and was a highlight of the genealogical part of this trip. The next day we travelled along the Lough Erne to Belleck, where they make wonderful pottery. The Lough is beautiful in itself, and the site of much recreational boating and fishing. We took the bus route back to Enniskillen around the opposite side of the lough, so we could see this lake from both sides. I visited Lisnaskea for a few hours the next day to see the local library. The librarian was very helpful. Although they don't see a lot of visitors here, they had a file with about 40 to 50 old references to Lisnaskea, including maps, articles about local history, etc. I made some photocopies of the articles on the workhouse which was established there in the 1830's, and also found some useful information on Lisnaskea and how it was very prominent in the area at one time. We headed back to Belfast to take the Sunday afternoon city tour which takes you through Belfast's history including the areas that have been in the news over the past several years. It was excellent. >>