ENNISKILLEN ARCHITECTURAL LANDMARKS
The twin spires of St. Michael`s Roman Catholic church and St. Macartan`s cathedral dominate the town centre where the main street actually changes name six times - Belmore Street, East Bridge Street, Townhall Street, High Street, Church Street and Darling Street. Enniskillen Castle with its magnificent Watergate was built 600 years ago by the Gaelic Maguires and later became an English garrison fort and military barracks. Today it houses the Fermanagh County Museum and the Inniskillings regimental museum which are currently in re-development and from Spring 2016 will become a world class visitor attraction as the Heritage Gateway to Fermanagh. Beyond the West Bridge leading to Portora Royal School, which was founded by Royal Charter in 1608, is Willoughby Place, a terrace of listed buildings with Georgian fanlights and wrought iron balconies.
Historic landmarks include Blakes Victorian pub, the Methodist church with its Corinthian façade, the Townhall on the Diamond, its design inspired by the Carmine in Siena, the Court House with its spider web window tops, and the recently refurbished Orange Hall, now the Intec Learning centre. The Buttermarket complex with its art and craft studios has been tastefully reburbished on the site of the original butter market which was designed by John Frith and built in 1835. Consecrated in 1907, the Byzantine chapel at the Convent of Mercy is notable for its gallery of Irish stained glass made by the Dublin based group of artists, An Túr Gloine. In May 2001 former US President Clinton, who traces his ancestry to Fermanagh, officially opened the William Jefferson Clinton International Peace Centre built on a site devastated by an IRA bomb in 1987 with the loss of 11 lives. The Forthill Park may be accessed by steps from Belmore Street. At its centre is an ornate Victorian bandstand and an imposing Cole’s monument erected in memory of Sir G Lowry Cole G.C.B. a