![\"Lower](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.design42.com\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_2931.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
Two lakes make up Lough Erne. They are really wide areas in the River Erne as it flows into the Atlantic. I stayed somewhere right on the lake somewhere near Enniskillen.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Cliffs of Magho overlook Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
Nearby, a limestone escarpment, the Cliffs of Magho overlook Lower Lough Erne.<\/p>\n
Belleek Pottery started in 1849. It was a Famine Scheme. Somehow \u201cscheme\u201d has gotten to mean something bad, but it really just means \u201ca large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect.\u201d During the Great Famine, many people tried various plans to improve conditions.<\/p>\n
When John Caldwell Bloomfield inherited the Castle Caldwell estate, he tried many businesses to provide alternate employment for his tenants during the potato famine. He operated an eel fishery, a steam ship, mines, factories, a cement works, a brick works and a boot and shoe factory.\u00a0 He backed various other cottage industries. Like many estates at that time, he faced bankruptcy. \u00a0Bloomfield was an amateur mineralogist and his land was rich in minerals.\u00a0 He found partners and set up a pottery in 1858. They had a rail line built to ship in coal and ship out pottery. In 1863, the Belleek Pottery introduced the Parian porcelain they are known for.<\/p>\n
Belleek Pottery is best known for Parian porcelain, also called Statuary Porcelain. Parian is fine-textured, white biscuit porcelain with the look of marble. \u00a0It has a higher proportion of feldspar, which gives the finished product a more vitrified finish. That means it is very very smooth, with almost a glass-like surface.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The bathroom at Belleek Pottery<\/p><\/div>\n
This is the only photo I have at Belleek Pottery. The bathroom.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Small Road near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>House with Thatched Roof near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>House with Thatched Roof near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>House with Thatched Roof near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>House with Thatched Roof near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>House with Thatched Roof near Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Lower Lough Erne, Ireland<\/p><\/div>\n