Enniskillen Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | Killadeas Road, Gublusk, Lower Lough Erne, County Fermanagh BT94 1RA |
| Telephone | 028 6638 9816 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Enniskillen Lifeboat Station, on the south-eastern shore of Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, was the RNLI’s first inland lifeboat station. Established in 2001, it covers a 26-mile lough scattered with more than 150 islands, straddling the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It operates an Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat and a rescue water craft from a purpose-built station at Killadeas.
Rescue work on Lough Erne had long been carried out by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and later by the voluntary Lough Erne Rescue. When the Coastguard took over responsibility for search and rescue on the lough, the RNLI established Enniskillen (Lower) Lifeboat Station — its first inland station, and the 40th in Ireland — declared operational on 24 May 2001. Eighteen volunteers were trained at Cowes and Poole, and the station began at Lough Erne Yacht Club, operating from portakabins with an Atlantic 21 and a small E-class RIB.
A second station followed on the upper lough at Carrybridge in 2002. In 2017 the station was renamed Enniskillen. The current Atlantic 85, John and Jean Lewis (B-912), funded by a legacy from a Birmingham yacht designer and his wife, arrived in 2018.
After 21 years in temporary accommodation, a new purpose-built station at Gublusk on the Killadeas Road was opened in 2023; by the time the lifeboat was formally named that year she had already launched 97 times and brought 205 people to safety.
