TASTE THE MAGIC OF IRELAND
John MacLeod finds a warm welcome in this amazing island
THERE’S a green and magical land within ready motoring from Scotland – one of quiet roads, abundant attractions, an unhurried pace of life and kindly, very funny people. And forget everything you ever heard about bacon and boiled cabbage – food in Ireland, these days, is amazing. The swift, comfortable ferry bears you from Cairnryan in bonny Wigtownshire to Larne, County Antrim, in less than two hours – and sailings are frequent and convenient.
Larne’s but half an hour from Belfast, a wonderfully reinvented city with gorgeous old buildings, happy nightlife and the fantastic Titanic Belfast exhibition – for here that doomed liner was built.
An hour’s drive in the other direction takes you along the dazzling Antrim coastline, with views of Scotland and the celebrated Giant’s Causeway.
But it’s in the heart of this country, bang on the border, that you really get a taste of Irish living and where there are grand things to see.
Get to Lough MacNean country, ten miles south of Enniskillen over the pretty drumlins of County Fermanagh and book a berth in Belcoo or Blacklion.
Belcoo is in the UK; Blacklion in the Republic of Ireland – though, apart from Gaelic on the road signs and a cheery reminder that speed limits will hereafter be proclaimed in kilometres, you would not notice.
Everyone trades in sterling and euro and refuelling your car, by the way, is much cheaper in the Republic.
There are jolly shops and an impressive number of pubs – the pint of Guinness pulled at Frank Eddie’s, in Blacklion, has a particular reputation, and there’s a lively guitar session every Wednesday night.
These twinned villages are a great base. You can head a little east and tour the amazing Marble Arch caves, all spookiness and stalactites, or head to Florence Court, one of Ireland’s greatest stately homes with fabulous gardens.
Nor is Enniskillen – Ireland’s only island town – to be sniffed at, with several impressive castles and the bustling Buttermarket.
I spent a splendid morning in an Erne Water Taxi – a fast, enclosed and bright yellow launch that feels like your own private jet – helmed by the good-hearted Barry Flanagan to get to Devenish Island.
With its round tower, high cross and Augustinian monastery, it is a poignant, powerful reminder that Ireland is the oldest Christian country in the world.
It’s worth the drive north to Bellaghy in County Derry, too, to visit the new Seamus Heaney HomePlace, a bright and moving shrine to one of the 20th century’s greatest poets – born the year, 1939, that arguably the other died: William Butler Yeats.
County Sligo is Yeats Country and not an hour from Blacklion. It’s worth diverting from the main N16 road westwards to pause at the lovely Glencar Waterfall – immortalised not only by Yeats, but in the 1980s by The Waterboys. You might here note how well Ireland is equipped for visitors. There is abundant parking, excellent signage, full wheelchair access, clean toilets, a pleasant tearoom and enclosed playpark. Ireland – and Northern Ireland – came rather late to tourism and as a result do it really well. Sligo itself is a surprisingly large town of characterful centre, stately bridges and an unexpected Italian Quarter.
You can push west to the amazing surfing of Strandhill or north to Drumcliff to visit Yeats’s grave.
MOVE on into the dramatic country of Donegal or curl back into Northern Ireland by Bundoran and Beleek. (Beleek is famous for two things – lovely pottery and being the most westerly community in the UK.)
But much lies within walking distance of Blacklion and Belcoo. The area is rich in prehistoric remains – crannogs, standing stones and megalithic tombs.
Visit the Shannon Pot – source of the longest river in the British Isles – or marvel at Belcoo’s Holy Well, an extraordinary spring gushing 600 gallons a minute. The curative waters are said to be the coldest in Ireland.
The Cavan Burren – atop a high road and with a ravishing outlook over the countryside – has a host of such wonders, including a rocking stone the size of a small car which even a child can set swaying back and fro on its ancient plinth.
There is the odd thatched cottage hereabouts, and the chap who came up with that Emerald Isle tag did not exaggerate – it’s an extraordinarily green country, a land of ash forest and, in season, of wild fuchsia and crocosmia and many cattle.
It’s wonderful how you can eat here, too. At The Tap House gastropub in Enniskillen they serve a smoked haddock chowder worthy of celebration in verse. You will struggle to finish the delicious all-day breakfast at Blacklion’s Burren Rest Café – complete with newbaked soda bread and a pot of tea for under nine euro.
The village boasts, too, what many rate as the finest eating place in all Ireland.
Neven Maguire, 43, is one of Ireland’s best-loved chefs and, though of international talent and ubiquitous on telly, he has chosen to invest it in his native Blacklion.
People drive from Dublin to eat at MacNean House and Restaurant, where Neven and his crew offer – from the best and locally sourced ingredients – a fabulous seven-course tasting menu in gracious surroundings and with the warmest but unobtrusive service.
There’s typically a twoyear wait for a table ‘but never be afraid to phone’, says Neven, who tours all the tables to inquire as to your enjoyment.
You finish the last of the handmade petits fours, take another sip of the wickedly luscious coffee, and wonder if Friday’s ferry home might just leave without you.