In Northern Ireland's Lake Country

The bucolic landscape of County Fermanagh has been shaped by ice and water with reed fringed lakes, and petite drumlins - small hills formed by glaciers that remind one of inverted spoons, says Kalpana Sunder who tours this picturesque and hardly-known part of Ireland.

- Kalpana Sunder

I clamber up a ladder to the upper chamber of the priory, where through narrow slit windows I am treated to a panoramic sweep of Fermanagh’s verdant countryside, swathed in a curtain of mist. I am in Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, which translates from Irish as ‘men of the monks’; because of numerous monastic settlements on the islands of Lough (meaning lake) Erne in the middle ages. “Fermanagh is all about water. Today one third of this county is covered in water, with 434 miles of rivers, canals and lakes,” explains my guide Billy Scott. The water that has gouged the soft limestone hills into the Cuilcagh mountain range runs deep beneath the ground, to create enormous cave systems, and in hillsides, creating a bog habitat that is home to rare birdlife and unique plants and of course creating Lough Erne, which stretches out into a maze of 365 wooded islands. “In Fermanagh, you can fi sh walk, cycle or play golf along the lakeshores. You can join a cruise from Enniskillen, you can explore mountain tombs and prehistoric monuments, or even go to a cookery school”, says Billy. “Interestingly, when the rest of the country faced the great potato famine, this country escaped it, as the potato blight could not travel across the water easily!” he adds.