FROM lost places and spaces, to the history of our townlands, to ‘Ireland’s Atlantis’, the heritage of Fermanagh is being celebrated this month through a special project marking 200 years of the Ordnance Survey in the county.
The ‘OS200’ residency programme at Enniskillen Castle begins today, Wednesday, September 6th, and continues until this Sunday, September 10th. It is focused on exploring Fermanagh’s historic place names, townlands, rivers, loughs, and maps.
The local community has been invited to a number of free workshops and talks, which are taking place every morning this week. Each one will explore a different aspect of the Ordnance Survey and how Fermanagh was documented and mapped 200 years ago. There will also be drop-in sessions for visitors each afternoon.
The OS200 residency is part of the OS200: Digitally Re-mapping Ireland’s Ordnance Survey Heritage which aims to gather historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps and texts to form a free online resource for academic and public use.
Frances Kane from Queen’s University, which is running the OS200 project in collaboration with the University of Limerick, said the team was looking forward to engaging with the local community on all aspects of the Ordnance Survey.
“Not only will we be inviting the public to explore the materials within our new database, but we are looking forward to gathering previously unrecorded stories of Fermanagh and engaging the people of Fermanagh to help us fill in the blanks in the OS sources that were recorded 200 years ago,” she said.
The first of the workshops takes place this morning, Wednesday, and focuses on ‘Lost Places, Lost Spaces’.
Then tomorrow, Thursday, September 7th, the workshop will cover the Lough Erne Pilgrim Way, on Friday the workshop will focus on ‘Field Names of Fermanagh’, while on Saturday the workshop will be on the ‘Townlands of Enniskillen.’
Each of the workshops takes place from 10am-12pm at Enniskillen Castle, while there will also public drop-in sessions each afternoon from 2pm-5pm.
On Friday there will also be an event on ‘Fermanagh, Place-Names and the Ordnance Survey’ at the Barrack Store at the Castle at 1pm, while on Saturday evening there will be a public lecture ‘Ireland’s Atlantis: The Lost Islands of Co Fermanagh’ at 7pm at Fermanagh House.
Tonight, Wednesday, there is also an Ordnance Survey themed quiz at Charlie’s Bar from 8pm.
All events are being held as part of European Heritage Open Days 2023.
To book an event visit www.enniskillencastle.co.uk
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