Killadeas


Killadeas is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is about 7 miles north of Enniskillen near the shores of Lower Lough Erne, and is within Fermanagh and Omagh district. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 90 people.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution operates a lifeboat station on Lower Lough Erne at Killadeas. It works in conjunction with another lifeboat station on Upper Lough Erne at Carrybridge.

History

In the cemetery of the Church of Ireland Parish "Priory" Church of Killadeas are several stones, the most noted of which is known as the Bishops Stone. On one side an ecclesiastic is portrayed with bell and crozier and on the other is a head in relief and a panel of interlace carving. The head was carved before the ecclesiastic was added to the other surface and the stone trimmed at yet another period because both head and ecclesiastic were damaged as a result. The figure carved stone and cross-slab are Scheduled Historic Monuments and are in Rockfield townland at grid ref: H206540. To the west of this stone is a large slab, one side of which has at least ten cup-shaped hollows, which is possibly a multiple bullaun stone. Near to this is a hole stone and a pillar.
Near Killadeas, on Lower Lough Erne, is Gublusk Bay, a Royal Air Force base for Short Sunderland and PBY Catalina flying boats during World War II. Building at RAF Killadeas started in January 1941 and the first Catalinas arrived two months later. The site is now the home of the Lough Erne Yacht Club.
The Manor House, a converted and extended 19th-century country manor, is also in Killadeas. The Killadeas Estate was acquired by Captain J. Irvine in 1660, and the Manor House, formerly known as "Rockfield" remained part of the Irvine Estate until 1957, when it was purchased for use as a hotel. The Manor House, which has seen many alterations to its design over the centuries, was for a brief period used as an Officer's Mess and Headquarters for the American Forces during World War II.