Bellanaleck short break: Upper Lough Erne, Crom and Belturbet

Carrickcraft's Erne base is at The Moorings on the Derrylin Road, beside public moorings with toilets, showers and a pump-out and The Moorings Restaurant on the shore, so if the handover runs late you can stay the night. Otherwise head south into the lough, passing close to Belle Isle, the private estate island where the Annals of Ulster were compiled in the late 15th century (no public landing). Knockninny, under the hill named after the sixth-century St Ninnidh, has a public quay with toilets, showers and one of the Upper Lough's few pump-outs, but no shore power. We could not confirm that the country house next door still serves meals, so bring dinner.

More open water today, so read the forecast first. South-east of Knockninny lies Inish Rath, the Krishna island: its Hare Krishna community welcomes visitors at the quay, but it is private land and a place of worship, so ring ahead (+44 7548 311916) and leave meat, cigarettes and alcohol on board. Past the Crom shore the lough narrows into the River Erne and crosses from Fermanagh into County Cavan. Belturbet has public riverside moorings below the town, with parking alongside and public toilets a short walk away; a jetty with power bollards and a service block was added in 2023. Belturbet uses the euro; the Fermanagh shore you have just left uses sterling.

Spend the morning in town. The cut-stone railway station of 1885, once the end of the narrow-gauge Cavan & Leitrim line, is a heritage museum on Friday to Sunday afternoons, and Turbet Island across the river has walking trails and the mound of an early 13th-century Anglo-Norman motte. Then head back down the Erne to Galloon Island, whose public jetty has toilets, showers and a pump-out; in the old graveyard two carved shafts survive of the four high crosses that once stood there. From Galloon, cross over to Crom, where the public jetty lies close to the National Trust visitor centre. Arrive in time to walk the estate before it closes.

Crom is some 2,000 acres of ancient woodland, parkland and islands, home to pine martens, red squirrels, deer and all eight native bat species; in 2026 the BBC based Springwatch here. The estate charges admission, boaters included, and the tea-room takes cash only. A waymarked loop runs from the visitor centre past the ruins of Old Crom Castle, built in 1611 and burnt in the 1760s, along the shore to the boathouse and over the White Bridge. Leave by early afternoon for the run north past Inish Rath and Knockninny, the longest day on the water, so check the wind first. Near the base, Cleenish Island marks a monastic enclosure dated by excavation to the 7th century.