The castle at the centre of this demesne is a shell, gutted by fire in 1990 and never rebuilt, so what you actually come for is the ground around it. The Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark guide lists an easy, flat 5.5 km (3.5-mile) loop, taking about 90 minutes, on a wooded estate near Belturbet where the River Finn meets Upper Lough Erne. The geopark lists the trail as wheelchair accessible and asks visitors to keep dogs under control and clean up after them. The Finn along the north-eastern edge is a designated Area of Special Scientific Interest, and the estate sits inside the Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark.
The castle is a ruin. Give its walls space and follow the signs and local notices around the estate.
The Saunderson family
The O’Reillys of Breffni held this land from the 14th century, but the house you see is Victorian, not medieval. It was built around 1835 and remodelled in 1840 in a Tudor-Gothic style of battlements, turrets and a gatehouse tower, designed by the architect George Sudden. An earlier fortified house on the site was burned by James II’s troops in 1689, and months later a retreating Jacobite column was ambushed nearby and driven into the Finn. Robert Sanderson, a supporter of William of Orange, inherited the estate in 1676.
The family gave Ireland two figures worth knowing. Colonel Edward James Saunderson was a founder of the Ulster Unionist Party. His descendant, Captain Alexander ‘Sandy’ Saunderson, served as a legal adviser at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after the Second World War.
The scout centre
Scouting Ireland bought the estate in 1997 and, after a major EU-funded redevelopment, opened the Castle Saunderson International Scout Centre in August 2012, with President Michael D. Higgins doing the honours. The site runs programmes tied to the World Scout Movement’s Messengers of Peace initiative. During the Covid-19 outbreak the centre served as a mass testing site for the HSE.
The international scout centre operates separately from the trail. Contact it about group visits, accommodation, camping or activities, as these are arranged through the centre and its bookings take priority.
Getting there and nearby
Use the main trail car park via the Scout Centre entrance off the N54, signed for the castle. Public transport is thin: the nearest stop is in Belturbet, with taxis for the last stretch. Check with the scout centre or the geopark for current access arrangements before you travel far. The address for mapping apps is Castle Saunderson International Scout Centre, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, H14 X650.
For more of the county, see County Cavan; a short drive on, Cavan Burren Park has megalithic tombs and limestone pavements.