County Fermanagh · Ulster
Belleek
Béal Leice
'mouth of the flagstones'
The story
Famous for its pottery, which has been made here since 1857 and is known by the village's name the world over. The village sits where the Erne runs out towards the sea, and part of it crosses the river into Donegal, which is to say the border runs through it.
Worth seeing nearby
- Boa Island figures · Two-faced 'Janus' idols in a Lough Erne graveyard, older than Christianity in Ireland. Which god they show, nobody knows.
- Lough Derg (St Patrick's Purgatory) · A cave Patrick was said to have seen Purgatory in, medieval Europe's most famous pilgrimage; pilgrims still fast barefoot for three days on the island.
- Lough Erne — Érne’s flight · Érne was Medb’s lady-in-waiting at Cruachan. When something came up out of the cave of Oweynagat, she and her women ran north until the water took them, and their bodies dissolved into the lake that bears her name.
All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.
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