range, on the Cavan/Fermanagh border. Fermanagh spans an area of 1,851 km2 (715 sq; mi), accounting for 13.2% of the landmass of Northern Ireland. Nearly a third of the county is covered by lakes and waterways, including Upper and Lower
Lough Erne and the
River Erne. Forests cover 14% of the landmass (42,000 hectares). It is the only county in Northern Ireland that does not border
Lough Neagh. The county has three prominent upland areas: • the expansive
West Fermanagh Scarplands to the southwest of Lough Erne, which rise to about 350m, • the
Sliabh Beagh hills, situated to the east on the Monaghan border, and • the Cuilcagh mountain range, located along Fermanagh's southern border, which contains
Cuilcagh, the county's highest point, at 665m. The county borders: •
County Tyrone to the north-east, •
County Monaghan to the south-east, •
County Cavan to the south-west, •
County Leitrim to the west, and •
County Donegal to the north-west. Fermanagh is by far the least populous of Northern Ireland's six counties, with just over one-third the population of
Tyrone, the next least populous county. It is approximately from
Belfast and from
Dublin. The county town, Enniskillen, is the largest settlement in Fermanagh, situated in the middle of the county. The county enjoys a
temperate oceanic climate (
Cfb') with cool winters, mild humid summers, and a lack of temperature extremes, according to the
Köppen climate classification. The
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty manages three sites of historic and natural beauty in the county:
Crom Estate,
Florence Court, and
Castle Coole.
Geology The oldest sediments in the county are found north of Lough Erne. These so-called
red beds were formed approximately 550 million years ago. Extensive
sandstone can be found in the eastern part of the county, laid down during the
Devonian, 400 million years ago. Much of the rest of the county's sediments are
shale and
limestone dating from the
Carboniferous, 354 to 298 million years ago. These softer sediments have produced extensive cave systems such as the
Shannon Cave, the
Marble Arch Caves and the
Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore hills. The carboniferous shale exists in several counties of northwest Ireland, an area known colloquially as the
Lough Allen basin. The basin is estimated to contain 9.4 trillion cubic metres of
natural gas, equivalent to 1.5 billion
barrels of oil. The county is situated over a sequence of prominent faults, primarily the
Killadeas – Seskinore Fault, the
Tempo – Sixmilecross Fault, the
Belcoo Fault and the
Clogher Valley Fault which cross-cuts Lough Erne. ==History==