Ireland – Inland Waterways

We based ourselves just outside of Donegal town for the next couple of nights and on the way up from Bundoran we did a little bit of sightseeing in the hills of Gleniff. Visit Ireland social media posts had guided us to some stunning sights so we enjoyed a pleasant evening exploring.

After a good night sleep in an amazing self-catering converted outbuilding, we headed inland to our first visit of the day.

Enniskillen Lifeboat Station

On arrival at the impressive Enniskillen station we were welcomed by Johnny, Stephen, Irwin and Duke the Dog. We had a good chat about the station and crew with a cup of tea before having a detailed tour of the station and the boat.

The station lies at the end of lower Lough Erne about 6 miles from the town of Enniskillen. The lough itself consists of two connected lakes forming the second largest waterway in Northern Ireland and the fourth largest in Ireland. The lough covers approximately 50 square miles and is peppered with islands.

The station was established in May 2001 as Irelands first inland station. Initially based across the lough in the grounds of the Yacht Club, they began service from portakabins and with two inshore lifeboats.

After 21 years operating out of temporary accommodation, a new purpose-built ‘template’ station was constructed and handed over to the station in November 2022. Along with housing both lifeboat, carriage and launch tractor, there are modern crew facilities, a workshop, office and training room. Solar panels are fitted to the roof, with ground source heating helping to reduce energy usage. Contribution to the construction was received from the family of the late Alfred Russell Wallace Weir from Bangor, County Down, in his memory. The station is now considered to be a model for this type of station and we were to see other examples on our visits.

Their Atlantic 85 Inshore Lifeboat is John and Jean Lewis (B-912) which joined the station in 2018. At the time of our visit they had a relief B-Class, Ted Dawber (B-918) as their own boat was away for overhaul.

After several photos and a good chat we said our farewells and headed to our next inland station.

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Carrybridge Lifeboat Station

Just 13 miles south of Enniskillen, Carrybridge Lifeboat Station sits on the shores of the River Earne. We were greeted by Chris who welcomed us to the station and offered us a cup of tea. We chatted for a good while about the station before taking a comprehensive tour. We learnt that the design of Carrybridge station was essentially exactly the same as Enniskillen. However, the latter had taken advantage of some lessons learnt in terms of design and incorporated some improvements. An example of which is a slightly higher main door so that the B-Class communications rig could remained fixed in its upright position – a big benefit to the crew at launch and recovery.

The station was established in July 2002, just over 12 months after Enniskillen. In 2014, 12 years after operations commenced at Carrybridge, and continued in temporary buildings, construction of a new station building was started, and would be the first specially built inland RNLI station building. £60,000 was raised by the local community towards the cost. The building was completed and operational by March 2015. At a ceremony on 14 October 2015, the station was formally opened by H.R.H. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, President of the RNLI.

Their inshore Atlantic 85 lifeboat is named Douglas, Euan and Kay Richards (B-904) on station 2017. It was funded by the John and Elizabeth Allan Memorial Trust, a charitable organisation set up by their son Dr Patrick Allan and named after his three children.

A fantastic day visit two very similar lifeboat stations covering unique but dangerous inland waters.