At the western edge
Belleek
Fine china, potters' windows and forest walks where the River Erne leaves Lower Lough Erne for the Atlantic.
- Best for
- Pottery heritage and lakeland walks
- Give it
- A day with a car
- Don't miss
- The Belleek Basket and the Potters' windows
The Fox verdict
Pottery heritage at the UK's western edge
Belleek pairs its working fine-china pottery with stained glass, a historic thatched coffee shop and nearby lakeland forests.
The pottery remains the main draw, with factory tours, a museum, showroom and tea room. Its founders also appear in the Church of Ireland's Potters' windows, while Castle Caldwell and Lough Navar add waymarked walks, a scenic drive and views over Lower Lough Erne.
Where to go
Places in Belleek
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesBelleek Pottery Visitor Centre
Guided factory tours, a museum, showroom and tea room at the oldest working fine-china pottery on the island of Ireland.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- Belleek
Belleek Parish Church
A Church of Ireland building with three Potters' windows commemorating Belleek Pottery's founders.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Belleek
Lough Navar Forest and Cliffs of Magho
An 11 km scenic forest drive, picnic areas and four walking trails, with the Cliffs of Magho viewpoint over Lower Lough Erne.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- south-east of Belleek
Food & drink
1 placeThe Thatch
A B1-listed thatched house of around 1830, now a coffee shop serving home-made breakfasts and lunches.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour
- Locality
- Belleek
Walks & outdoors
1 placeCastle Caldwell Forest
Waymarked woodland and lakeside walks, picnic areas, birdwatching, the ruined plantation castle and the Fiddler's Stone.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- four miles west of Belleek
- Access
- The ruined castle is not open inside.
History & heritage
1 placeSt Patrick's Roman Catholic Church
A Roman Catholic church with a stained-glass window of a potter's hands above the altar.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Belleek
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Three ways to explore Belleek
Signature outings
See Belleek being made
Take a guided factory tour, then visit the museum, showroom and tea room at Belleek Pottery.
Pause at The Thatch
Have a home-made breakfast or lunch in Belleek's oldest building, a thatched house dating from around 1830.
Follow Castle Caldwell's trails
Take the waymarked forest and lakeside walks past the ruined castle and the Fiddler's Stone.
The village story
Belleek Village Guide
Pottery, music and border history where Lower Lough Erne flows west towards the Atlantic.
The Western Edge and the Fiddlestone
The Fiddlestone Bar has served drinks on Main Street for more than a century, and CAMRA lists it as the westernmost pub in the United Kingdom. This is a distinction Belleek can make honestly. The village sits where the River Erne leaves Lower Lough Erne and turns west for the Atlantic, and part of it crosses the river into County Donegal, which makes it the most westerly settlement in Northern Ireland, and therefore in the whole country.
The Fiddlestone was originally Hannah Moohan's. It still trades as a plain bar with a guesthouse and off-sales rather than anything food-led — a traditional Irish breakfast, live traditional music, and, CAMRA notes, a tendency to get busy at weekends. Its name comes from the Fiddler's Stone a few miles west at Castle Caldwell, a fiddle-shaped memorial to Denis McCabe, a fiddler hired to play on Sir James Caldwell's barge in 1770 who fell overboard and drowned while the guests, by all accounts drunk, failed to save him.
Main Street Food and The Thatch
For a full meal you want the Black Cat Cove, further along Main Street, which serves from noon and puts on live music in the evenings. The menu runs to steak sandwiches, beer-battered cod, chicken carbonara, burgers with homemade chips, and cheesecake. Reviewers call it "good honest home cooked food ... the best pint in town," and it is priced accordingly.
The Thatch is the oldest building in the village, a thatched cottage from around 1830, and the only originally thatched house left in County Fermanagh. It pre-dates the pottery, which is saying something here. One of its occupants in the 1859 valuation was John Caldwell Bloomfield, who a couple of years earlier had founded Belleek Pottery. Home-made food has come out of it since the early 1900s, and it has been a coffee shop since 1995.
Pottery in Clay and Glass
The pottery is why most people come. Bloomfield set it up in 1857 to provide work during hard times, using local kaolin and feldspar, and it is the oldest working fine-china pottery on the island of Ireland. The visitor centre draws around 150,000 people a year for factory tours, a museum, a showroom and a tea room. The lattice-work Belleek Basket, with its woven clay and hand-painted shamrocks, is still made largely by the same methods it was 165 years ago.
The industry marked the village so thoroughly that it turns up in the churches. The Church of Ireland parish church has three stained-glass Potters' windows commemorating the pottery's founders, and St Patrick's has a window of a potter's hands above the altar.
Forests and Onward Travel
The walking is in the surrounding lakeland. Castle Caldwell Forest, four miles west, has waymarked lakeside trails and the RSPB birdlife of Lower Lough Erne — terns, curlews, lapwings. South-east, the Cliffs of Magho run for nine kilometres above the lake, up to 300 metres high, with views into Fermanagh, Sligo, Tyrone and Donegal.
Enniskillen is about 25 minutes east; Ballyshannon, over the border in Donegal, is ten. There is no station — the line closed in 1957 — so you will want a car. The market still runs on the third Tuesday of each month, quieter now than in the 1980s, when it spilled across the border.
Stay around Fermanagh
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Fermanagh, linked directly to their property pages.
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Belleek Pottery Visitor Centre — belleekpottery.ie operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Thatch — belleekheritagevillage.com other published source
- Belleek Parish Church — clogher.anglican.org national body or asset manager
- St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church — clogherdiocese.ie other published source
- Castle Caldwell Forest — nidirect.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Lough Navar Forest and Cliffs of Magho — nidirect.gov.uk statutory register or public authority