Great Canal Journeys (2014) s03e03 Episode Script
Shannon Erne Waterway
1 I'm Prunella Scales.
And I'm Timothy West.
Beautiful.
We've been husband and wife for over five decades.
Amazing.
Cheers.
We've been wedded to stage and screen for even longer.
Great hairdo! Ha-ha.
But we share another passion - canals.
Cast off, please.
Aye-aye, sir.
Canals wind through our lives, carrying our treasured memories Of families growing up, Of moments of wonder And hidden beauty.
Is this the most remote canal we've ever been on? It probably is, yes.
Of love And laughter.
Hey! Sorry about that.
Things are a bit harder for me these days.
I'm not strong enough.
But we get by.
We're at the Sun Inn! Hooray! Pru has a slight condition.
It does mean she has difficulty remembering things.
Oh, my darling.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't cast you off! One has to recognise that Pru's domestic life is getting a little narrower by the day.
Well, it can be a nuisance, but it doesn't stop me remembering how to open a lock gate, or make the skipper a cup of tea.
OK.
Cast off.
OK.
We'll be exploring new countries.
It's amazing, isn't it? And following new routes.
I'm lost now.
But one thing stays the same We're always together.
Let's stay right here.
So peaceful.
This time, the canals and Loughs of North West Ireland.
We'll explore a waterway that is totally new to us Following a route steeped in history It's a land so rich in legend and the supernatural.
And being out here, you can sort of tell why.
.
.
one that links two nations.
This is border country! Derelict for over a century, the Shannon Erne Waterway was reopened in 1994.
Since then, we've longed to discover its wild and remote shores.
It's magical.
On past journeys we've explored Pru's family roots and now it's my turn.
What do I find? Not only that I have relations in this part of the country, but that we're actually sailing towards a house that once belonged to my ancestors.
Hello! And in County Fermanagh, we uncover a link to Ireland that runs deeper than I could ever imagine.
I thought I'd married a penniless actor.
Have I married into the landed gentry? Our voyage begins on the shores of a lake in southern Ireland.
Gosh.
Our vessel is waiting for us at the entrance to the Lough Allen Canal.
Maeve.
Maeve.
Yep.
Maeve was a legendary warrior queen, who once ruled this part of Ireland.
She looks more friendly than warlike.
Oh, look.
It's so wide! Yeah, I'd say it's about 10ft, wouldn't you? I don't know.
Never had an en-suite before.
Oh, well, play your cards right Oh, brilliant! It rains quite a lot here.
I think maybe we should get off while we're still dry.
'No chance of that, I'm afraid.
' But we're used to narrowboating in all weathers.
Off we go! Our journey across two countries.
Our voyage begins in the Republic of Ireland, in the north-west.
Following the short Lough Allen Canal, we'll then turn on to the Shannon-Erne Canal.
Crossing into Northern Ireland, our route links up with the great lakes of the River Erne.
Heading ever northwards, we'll reach the end of the waterway at Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh.
It's amazing, isn't it? It's like old Ireland, the Ireland of myths and legend.
Yes, it's wild, very beautiful.
Yes, yes.
The Lough Allen Canal is off the beaten track today, but it was part of a network of canals and rivers connecting rural Ireland to the cities.
This canal transported coal all the way to Dublin.
It's quite difficult to see what is above the waterline and what is reflection.
It's like that poem of AA Milne, isn't it? "The trees bending down to meet the trees.
" "The sun looks down from quiet skies "To where a quiet water lies, "And silent trees stoop down to the trees.
" SHE YELPS Sorry about that.
The trouble is, you see, we've got to keep it absolutely in the centre of the channel.
Oh, darling, are you all right? Ah! Sorry about that.
God almighty.
This journey gives Tim and me a chance to explore our family links with Ireland.
You've got some sort of a family connection with Ireland, haven't you? Well, yes, but I never knew any of them.
I think I had a great-grandmother from County Mayo.
But you've got quite strong Irish connections, haven't you? I mean, is this a journey back to your roots? My roots in Ireland are pretty well all on the east coast.
My family were Anglo-Irish, which was not uncommon at that time, especially around the Dublin area.
I've always been curious about the depth of my Irish roots.
Perhaps on this journey I'll find out how Irish I am.
This is Acres Lake, here.
We'll find lots and lots of these little sort of mini loughs.
Famed for its rain and countless lakes, they say the land in these parts is sold by the gallon.
We're coming to end of the three-mile-long Lough Allen Canal.
"End of navigation.
" So you're going to have to navigate from now on in, darling.
Just leave it to chance.
Ahead is where we turn on to the Shannon-Erne Waterway' It's very, very sharp.
Well done.
.
.
18 miles of river and canal that will lead us toward the great Erne Lakes.
Today, this picturesque stretch of canal is popular with leisure boaters How are you? .
.
but it has a reputation for being the world's least commercially successful canal.
Costing £25 million in today's money to build, its opening in 1860 coincided with the arrival of the railways, making it instantly obsolete.
The canal operated for only nine years, and saw just eight paying boats, generating a total income of under £2,000.
Unsurprisingly, it closed, and remained that way for 126 years.
Good afternoon.
I'll give you a rest.
You are lovely.
Frank McCabe has worked on the canal ever since it was restored and reopened in 1997.
He's also lived beside its banks all his life.
So, as a boy, you must have seen it in very derelict condition.
Yes.
Coming home from school you could walk across the canal.
Aha.
The water would only come up a little bit above your ankles on a very dry summer.
Why was the canal originally opened? What was the real reason for it? Well, you know, we'd just had a famine in this country, and things was at, if you call it, a bad state, so maybe this was the whole idea - to open this canal to give a little bit of respite to people, and get them back on their feet again.
Right, and, yes, a bit of employment.
Yes.
Yeah.
During the potato blight in the 1840s, famine swept through Ireland.
A million died of starvation and a million more were forced to emigrate.
The building of the canal was an attempt to create jobs and save lives.
But by the time construction started, many of the labourers were too weakened by hunger to work.
Frank himself has found evidence of how bad things were back then.
I have a piece of land along the river, just outside of Keshcarrigan, and during the excavation a big pot was dug up, so I took it up on the tractor up to my house, and I discovered afterwards that it was the famine pot.
These pots are lasting reminders of the terrible years of famine.
They were used by government soup kitchens to distribute food to the starving population.
But it was often too little food, too late.
Many labourers building the canal are said to have collapsed through hunger during their shifts.
So I have, at my house, the very pot that fed the men who worked on the canal.
That's great.
A canal born out of such tragic times, has, in recent years, found a new role.
When it came to the refurbishment, that was a pretty huge job, wasn't it? It was indeed.
And you were involved in that.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
I started in the early spring of 1991.
Reconstruction of the canal was an idea born out of the peace process.
Backed by both British and Irish governments, it recreates a lost link between the north and south.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi there.
Hello.
Hello.
People from Northern Ireland who come with their private boats and have a chat with the local southerners Yeah.
.
.
and this is a good thing.
Of course it is.
I didn't ever realise when I was growing up that this canal would be There'd be cruisers going down the canal, and boats, and it would be officially open.
It was one of the good things that happened in my life.
Yeah.
This canal carries many sad memories, but it's also become a symbol of hope for the future, of friendship and peace.
It's been a pleasure meeting you and your good wife, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Ireland.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, lovely meeting you.
And you.
All the best.
Take care.
God bless.
Bye-bye.
During the restoration, every lock on this canal was modernised, and now operates on a push-button hydroelectric system.
'And instead of a metal lock key, I've been issued with some sort of plastic credit card.
So what do we do? I go up to that thing and I put the card in Yes and I do what it tells me.
What does it tell you? Oh, I can't remember.
I'm quite an intelligent person, and I know what to do when people tell me it, but I keep forgetting.
Oh, it's all right.
Yeah.
Pru's condition makes her anxious about new things, but she does understand locks, so I'm sure she'll work it out.
Erm Do I just press that? Nothing happened.
'I've been opening canal locks for nearly half my life, using a system invented three centuries ago.
Oh, it's the wrong gate! I suppose this is what you call progress.
Come on.
Oh, open.
Thank God.
Timbo, are you safely in now? Yep.
Letting the water in.
It's perfectly simple, really, but why does it have to sound like a bin lorry reversing? Thank you.
I'm used to sort of handling locks with a you know, with a windlass and a lot of strength, and on this I just have to press a button.
I can't get used to it, really.
So you feel cheated, do you? Yeah, a bit.
I'm not earning my keep.
Right.
Two swans ahead! Aw Hello, swan.
How are you? Hello.
Yes, they're a pair.
Yeah.
Yes, definitely.
We've reached our mooring for the night, near the village of Leitrim and, for a perfect antidote to the sad history of this stretch of canal, we've been invited to a pub, famous for its traditional music, dance and hospitality.
They're very good, aren't they? Yes.
At Carthy's, anyone who can sing or dance is invited to join in.
This is a local song called My Lovely Leitrim Shore.
So thinking of fond memories We started out from town The birds were singing in the trees As we went walking down I'd like to stop there now, and I'd like to ask Timothy West up to continue the song.
You're crazy.
Will you walk with me once more To a place we've been before? And when strolling down together We can pick the rolling heather And while walking hand-in-hand, We'll recall a time so grand It was so grand Looking out over Lough Allen On that lovely Leitrim Shore.
Thank you.
It's not just about the singing here Bravo! Oh, wow.
That was great.
Great.
.
.
but now Tim's done a turn, I can't really say no.
Right foot first? Right foot first.
Yeah.
So five, six, seven, and eight and go.
Heel, toe, one, two, three It's one of the things I love about Pru - she's always game to try something new.
One, two, three.
Heel and toe And a bow! Well done.
Thank you so much.
Good job.
Good job.
Well, I didn't fall over.
No, you didn't fall over.
We've never been to the lovely Leitrim shore before, but whether it's the hospitality or something deeper, we're feeling very at home.
We're on our first ever voyage through the canals of Ireland.
Travelling along the Shannon-Erne Waterway, we're following a route that takes us from Southern to Northern Ireland.
OK.
Thanks, darling.
OK.
Restored in 1994, this stretch of canal was improved by the installation of new-fangled locks.
I'm getting the hang of this now.
Which is more than can be said for my husband! Tim! Sorry about that! Today we keep heading east.
Travelling through Lough Garadice we'll pass the town of Ballyconnell.
Then, as we cross the border, the waterway opens into Lough Erne and we make our way to the estate of Crom.
Tim looks in his element.
He seems at home out here.
He sang us a song in the pub last night and .
.
it sounded so convincingly Irish, it was quite a surprise.
I suspect that his links with Ireland are deeper and longer lasting than he realises.
First bit of blue sky! It looks as if it's here for a few minutes anyway.
It's beginning to look lovely.
And curiously unlike English canals, I don't know what it is quite.
Perhaps it's the fact that we've met almost no other boat, seemingly alone in a vast unspoiled wilderness.
It's magical.
A countryside which goes on and on for miles and miles.
Lots of starlings! It's time for me to tackle another push button lock.
Can you get off? I don't know, not at the moment.
Can you get a bit nearer? I can't get any nearer than that.
Oh Did you hurt yourself No, it's all right.
No problem, OK.
Every now and again I get a reminder of our limits, but while we can still get up and dust ourselves off, we'll keep going.
And these push button locks certainly make my crew duties a lot easier.
The waters of the canal open out as we enter the vastness of Lough Garadice.
This is a bit of a new experience for us.
On the English canals you sometimes you get a bit of broad water, but nothing like this.
What a magical place! It's a land so rich in legend and the supernatural.
And being out here you can sort of tell why.
Many stories tell of the fairies who live beneath the surface of the loughs.
Irish fairies are an ancient race who were driven into hiding by invading humans.
In calm, clear weather, it's said you can just make out the towers and columns of their underwater palaces.
Boatmen coming home late at night have often told of sweet singing and glimpses of lights far below.
Thank you.
Awaiting us at our mooring is Jack Lynch, a seanchai.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Hey! A bearer of the old lore who keeps the ancient traditions alive.
Come aboard! I will come aboard.
It's a bit warmer down there.
So, welcome to this part of the world.
Lovely to be here! So, tell us about the Irish fairies.
Well A lot of people's picture of fairies is from Victorian times, a little creature with gossamer wings and that.
In the Irish tradition, they're not your little Peter Pan people.
The fairy folk could be like you or me - big, normal people.
They have special powers? They do.
They steal away small baby boys.
Ah, yes.
The Stolen Child, the great Yeats poem.
"Come away, oh human child.
" Yes, of course yes, oh.
And in early photographs of the 20th century you'll see boys are wearing dresses and this is to confuse the fairies.
So the whole fairy belief is pretty strong.
We're quite close to that other world, you know.
They say actually in the Irish tradition, Samhain, or Halloween, that's the time when the curtain between this world and the other world is thinnest and that's when the fairies and the ghosts come into our world.
Can I ask you, Pru, do you believe in fairies? Well when I was little, I absolutely did, you know.
Um, but, oh, now I've grown up I suppose I don't, but it's very difficult not to when you're in Ireland.
So, do you believe in fairies, Jack? Well, now, that's the question.
My father once saw a fairy and heard a Banshee.
Ha-ha! He was a reliable man.
Well, anything he said, I believed.
I haven't yet seen them, but I'll take his word for it.
I'm sure we'll all see fairies at some stage of the night, especially after this Wicklow whiskey! Thank you.
OK? Yeah.
Leaving the lake behind, we follow the canal as it weaves its way towards Northern Ireland.
And this is border country.
We'll be running along the border very shortly and passing the Aghalane Bridge which is in ruins because it was destroyed in 1972.
The Aghalane Bridge was a major link between the two countries.
Its bombing during the troubles severed two close communities for decades.
It's never been repaired.
How do they manage now? How do they get over? There's a new bridge now been built.
The Peace Bridge.
Oh, God bless it.
And that's the one that was destroyed.
Terribly upsetting, the whole thing.
It was a very sad time, bringing people into conflict with each other who previously had worked together, and lived together very well.
Since it was restored and reopened, the canal itself has become a symbol of peace as it reunites north and south.
As the locals say, "Water knows no boundary.
" We're all under the same sky, the same rain, the same umbrella.
We've crossed the border into the Northern Irish County of Fermanagh.
Here, the waterway opens out into vast loughs as we make our way towards Crom Castle and its estate.
I'm pouring a medicinal drink for the skipper.
He's standing out in the pouring rain.
What have you got there? A medicinal draught for you.
Oh.
You pour quite generous whiskies, don't you? Yes, sorry, is it too much? No, it's all right, we'll manage.
We're in Upper Lough Erne now.
Yes.
It's very beautiful.
It is gorgeous, gorgeous.
Even in this light, it's wonderful.
Yes.
What's the baby castle? Well, it's a folly.
This 19th-century folly announces our arrival at the lakeside estate of Crom.
This looks very remote now.
Yes, it does.
But back in 1600 Yeah.
.
.
this was the place to come .
.
and you arrived, always, by boat.
Founded by a Scots settler at the start of the 17th century, Crom has been the ancestral seat of the Earls of Erne for over 200 years.
At its height in the early 19th century, it was also a home for over 100 estate workers and their families.
Crom is spread over a series of islands, linked by stretches of shallow water, and the only way to get around, whether you were a worker, or an Earl, was by boat.
And the same is true today.
So, welcome aboard the Crom cot.
Now, this boat is over 100 years old.
Good Lord! They needed a boat with a very shallow keel on it so you can get in, onto stony shores and stuff like that.
Right.
Our skipper is Malachy from the National Trust, who run the estate today.
It's very remote and peaceful and tranquil now but it would have been a very busy part of the world in its day.
And at the epicentre of the whole wide estates, all connected by water, was Crom.
Oh, right.
Once one of the grandest estates in Ireland, Crom in its heyday was a social hub for the county set and was famous for its parties and its yacht races.
Now, this is the Crom schoolhouse coming into view.
There was once a whole community living out here in this remote spot.
This is where all the children of the estate would have went to school.
How did they get there, the kids? Do you see the stone structure over there? Right, yes.
The shelter? They would have waited over there to get the boat across.
And this is the boat that brought them across.
Every day? Every day.
It's truly a lost world.
Ahead is that Folly built on Gad's Island by the third Earl of Erne in 1847.
A lot of people lived on the estate, worked on the estate, and whenever they got married, they got one day off a year for their honeymoon and they spent it on the island here.
So this is like the honeymoon island.
Oh, sweet.
Do you fancy a second honeymoon out there? Well it would be private, wouldn't it? We wouldn't have waiters saying "I think the lady's just gone upstairs.
" So, just coming up here on our left is the old castle.
Oh, right.
Crom's history is far from being all honeymoons and yacht races.
Its origins lie in a bloody period of Irish and British history.
This is the original 1610 plantation castle.
Just enough of the ruin to get a clear idea of how it must have been.
The castle withstood two sieges during the Jacobite Rebellion.
The second, in 1689, was particularly brutal and its memory still scars the land today.
So, in the second siege, in July of that year, a lot of people lost their lives.
A lot of them fled and they had all their boats, if you look over here, they had all their boats tethered to Gad Island, but somebody cut the lines, the boats were tethered up so they couldn't flee in boats, so they had to swim or wade around the other side of the island and they were all cut down.
There were so many of them killed, they reckon 3,000 or 4,000 that the waters ran red with blood, so it's called The Bloody Pass.
The Bloody Pass - that casts a different light on this idyllic stretch of water.
So far, this journey has revealed the joy, the myths and the tragedy of this land.
Now it's time to head to the town of Enniskillen at the heart of the waterway, where we'll uncover some personal history with the help of a local genealogist.
Steer between those two posts.
No, between those two posts.
I know! But it's miles over here! Now what, Skipper? I'm lost now, completely.
Oh! We went the wrong way round the folly.
When I was a lad I served a term as office boy to an attorney's firm I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor and I polished up the handle of the big front door He polished up the handle of the big front door I polished up that handle so carefully That now I am the ruler of the Queen's Navy He polished up the handle so carefully That now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navy.
We're on a voyage through Ireland's waterways having been temporarily lost, things are now looking up.
We've crossed into Northern Ireland, and are now following the River Erne through the Upper Lough in County Fermanagh, heading for the town of Enniskillen.
At Enniskillen, we'll be meeting a genealogist to uncover the full story of Tim's links with Ireland.
My mother Olive was born in Dublin.
My grandparents were Anglo-Irish.
It was my Anglo-Irish grandfather in fact who started the long family tradition of acting.
He had a wonderful name.
C W Carleton Crowe was his professional stage name.
Carleton Crowe doesn't sound very Irish to me.
Well, Crowe is.
Yes.
Is it? Oh, yes.
Yes, Crowe's certainly very Irish.
I don't know whether Carleton was an affectation, or whether it really did have some kind of ancestral .
.
probity.
C W.
We shall see, as we're now approaching Enniskillen.
The town of Enniskillen has been marked by the Troubles and the Remembrance Day bombing of 1987 shocked the world.
11 people lost their lives that day, and 63 were injured.
Since then, the town has reclaimed its peaceful identity.
We're approaching Enniskillen Castle.
It's been a stronghold since the 1400s, in the days of the Irish Chieftains.
But this later castle was built by a settler from London.
Good morning.
You're very welcome to Enniskillen.
Good morning.
Hello.
Good morning.
We're greeted by Catherine, an expert on the castle's history.
This structure was built by a man called William Cole, who came to Enniskillen at the beginning of the 17th century, as part of a process called The Plantation of Ulster.
Where we see English and Scottish settlers coming to Ulster.
And, erm, specifically here in Enniskillen, we have William Cole who developed the town.
Why was this such an important spot? Because Enniskillen is an island, and on the island you build a castle for all those strategically important reasons.
Looking out over this narrow point of access into Ulster.
Yes Enniskillen itself is an island town, Inis Ceithleann, the Island of Cathleen, and is unique for being the only island town in Ireland, completely surrounded by water.
Right.
Catherine is taking us through the gatehouse, into the heart of the castle.
Home to the genealogy department, where more personal histories are unfolded.
We've been doing some research into your own family history, here at the museum, and have some information that you might be interested in.
So if we maybe go this way.
So, this is Frank.
Hello.
Hello.
What I know of my Irish ancestry so far is that they came from the Dublin area, and my grandfather was the Irish actor Christopher Carleton Crowe.
I'd always imagined he'd made up the Carleton bit as a good stage name.
So .
.
we start off with your great grandmother.
Her maiden name was Carleton.
Ah-hah.
We wondered whether that Carleton was a real name, or you know, an affectation.
But apparently it was a real name.
No, no, it's definitely a real name.
And I mean, actually, that's what's most interesting because, the Carletons were an English family Yeah who came to Ireland during The Plantation.
Oh, that far back.
Yeah.
Yes.
Very far back.
Uh-huh.
You have a very, very strong connection with Ireland, and, particularly, with Fermanagh.
We didn't know that did we? Not at all, no.
And you have some very illustrious ancestors.
That's Sir Guy Carleton, who was, er, from Fermanagh, was Governor General of Canada.
And he is connected to your family.
Wow.
Now, this is a family who came from Cumberland, in what is now modern-day Cumbria.
Yeah.
It's given me a lot to think about.
An enormous amount.
We now realise that part of your family 400 years ago, the Carletons, travelled to Fermanagh.
They established themselves here.
Yes.
And so perhaps maybe yourself and Pru here are retracing the journey that they may have taken along the water.
Yes, yes, indeed.
And it's extraordinary to be here in the one place where probably a lot of that history can best be unfolded.
Absolutely, yeah.
On the ground where we can see where they would have been, and where they lived when they were here.
Well, it's not every day that you discover you have a new family from a new place.
Somewhere that you'd never been before.
Back on the boat, Tim immediately immerses himself in the newly discovered branch of his family tree.
I've come across a mention of an estate, a very small estate, called Rossfad.
Built by Lancelot Carleton, which by extraordinary chance is a little bit further up the Lough from where we are now.
So we can visit your heritage.
We could go and have a look at it, yes.
It's very exciting, isn't it? It gets more and more extraordinary.
I thought I'd married a penniless actor.
Did you? Have I married into the landed gentry? I'm afraid so, yes, yes.
Oh, it's a bit embarrassing.
Tim has always been so proud of those he loves the most.
But this family revelation has moved him.
Here we are, in a county I've never been to before on a lough that I never knew existed.
And, er, what do I find? Not only that I have relations in this part of the country, but that we're actually sailing towards a house that belonged to one of them.
And we can go and visit it and I mean it's just extraordinary, isn't it? Our Irish voyage of discovery has become a personal journey back into my family's past.
Today, we reach the spot where they settled four centuries ago.
It's absolutely extraordinary, having only just learned of the existence of this family of mine, here, anywhere here Yes.
.
.
to suddenly find oneself sailing past their house.
Following the Erne Waterway ever northwards, we'll pass the sacred island of Devenish, before stopping off at my ancestors' estate.
We'll then push on to the top of the loch, at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
That's Devenish Island.
Sounds very sinister.
Yes, devilish.
Devilish, yes.
Well, perhaps it was at some point.
It's an ancient monastery.
Strange.
The monastery was founded 1,500 years ago.
Today, it's an isolated and mysterious place.
But throughout the Middle Ages it was a busy stopping-off point for pilgrims from all over Europe.
And it was still occupied well into the 16th century.
Look at these graves.
I wonder if there might be a Carlton among them? Oh New Irish ancestors.
Yeah.
It's possible.
Time for our final push towards Rossfad.
Part of my family lived here on this loch .
.
for 400 years.
See that gap between the trees? Yes, yes.
Well, I think that's the house.
It's got to be.
Quite a substantial house.
The drawing that I've been given of my relatives' 17th-century residence, shows a fortified manor house.
But although some of the old stone wall still stands Rossfad has been transformed into a comfortable-looking Georgian home.
So, here's some of the old bit and probably that wall.
That's right.
Good afternoon.
Hello, hello.
You're very welcome to Rossfad.
Your ancestral home.
I know.
Would you believe it? My ancestors, the Carltons, are, I presume, long gone, as the house's current owner is a local doctor, John Williams.
The entrance hall.
Beautiful, isn't it? It is nice, isn't it? What do you think? I think it's wonderful.
Wonderful.
I don't recognise any of it, of course, but It's enchanting.
I wish Come into the drawing room and take the weight off your feet.
So, this is Heather.
'John and his daughter-in-law Heather 'have done some background research on who owned this land.
' So, the Carltons came here in 1613, we believe.
And then, I think about 100 years later, a Carlton daughter married a Richardson.
So the Richardsons inherited Rossfad through marriage.
And they continued to live here until 1967.
So, my family, who first moved here in 1613, have been living here right up till, eh, really, more or less, just a while before you bought the house.
Mm-hm.
That's right.
1917.
That's a long time.
It's extraordinary.
A branch of my family lived on this spot for almost 400 years.
I had no idea that these Carltons were a proper family that dated back all this way and that I was directly related to them.
And then I found not only that they came out of a manor, they actually had a house on the loch that we were sailing along at that moment.
Wow.
It is.
It's creepy.
That's uncanny, isn't it? It is uncanny.
Talk about small worlds.
So, your interest in boats and the water is obviously genetic, because the Carltons had no other way of getting around.
So, canal boats were in the blood, darling? Canal boats, obviously, yes, yes.
'Canal boats and this beautiful land.
' Thank you so much.
Yes, thank you so much.
Lovely to meet you.
Goodbye.
Four centuries ago, part of my family left England and set sail for Ireland and the banks of Loch Erne.
They sailed the same waters and saw the same sights as we're seeing today.
It's a waterway entwined with my family's history.
Following canal, loch and river, we've uncovered a turbulent and sometimes painful past.
We've learnt that water knows no boundaries.
Oh, how nice! We found only warmth and friendship.
It's been a pleasure meeting you and your good wife.
On a voyage that's given us a glimpse into my family's past.
A past I never knew existed.
What do you think? I think it's I think it's wonderful.
Where are we aiming for? Well I can't see any land ahead now, so maybe it'd be a good idea if we turned back.
Before we end up in America, you mean? Probably in America, or at the bottom of the sea.
Coming soon our two greatest passions combined - canals and theatre.
Off to Stratford.
The actor's spiritual home.
And we embrace a new culture in Sweden.
So, are you feeling Swedish? Terribly Swedish.
As we embark on our greatest canal journey yet.
I used to dream about sailing round the world.
You've fulfilled all my childhood dreams for me.
Thank you.
And I'm Timothy West.
Beautiful.
We've been husband and wife for over five decades.
Amazing.
Cheers.
We've been wedded to stage and screen for even longer.
Great hairdo! Ha-ha.
But we share another passion - canals.
Cast off, please.
Aye-aye, sir.
Canals wind through our lives, carrying our treasured memories Of families growing up, Of moments of wonder And hidden beauty.
Is this the most remote canal we've ever been on? It probably is, yes.
Of love And laughter.
Hey! Sorry about that.
Things are a bit harder for me these days.
I'm not strong enough.
But we get by.
We're at the Sun Inn! Hooray! Pru has a slight condition.
It does mean she has difficulty remembering things.
Oh, my darling.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't cast you off! One has to recognise that Pru's domestic life is getting a little narrower by the day.
Well, it can be a nuisance, but it doesn't stop me remembering how to open a lock gate, or make the skipper a cup of tea.
OK.
Cast off.
OK.
We'll be exploring new countries.
It's amazing, isn't it? And following new routes.
I'm lost now.
But one thing stays the same We're always together.
Let's stay right here.
So peaceful.
This time, the canals and Loughs of North West Ireland.
We'll explore a waterway that is totally new to us Following a route steeped in history It's a land so rich in legend and the supernatural.
And being out here, you can sort of tell why.
.
.
one that links two nations.
This is border country! Derelict for over a century, the Shannon Erne Waterway was reopened in 1994.
Since then, we've longed to discover its wild and remote shores.
It's magical.
On past journeys we've explored Pru's family roots and now it's my turn.
What do I find? Not only that I have relations in this part of the country, but that we're actually sailing towards a house that once belonged to my ancestors.
Hello! And in County Fermanagh, we uncover a link to Ireland that runs deeper than I could ever imagine.
I thought I'd married a penniless actor.
Have I married into the landed gentry? Our voyage begins on the shores of a lake in southern Ireland.
Gosh.
Our vessel is waiting for us at the entrance to the Lough Allen Canal.
Maeve.
Maeve.
Yep.
Maeve was a legendary warrior queen, who once ruled this part of Ireland.
She looks more friendly than warlike.
Oh, look.
It's so wide! Yeah, I'd say it's about 10ft, wouldn't you? I don't know.
Never had an en-suite before.
Oh, well, play your cards right Oh, brilliant! It rains quite a lot here.
I think maybe we should get off while we're still dry.
'No chance of that, I'm afraid.
' But we're used to narrowboating in all weathers.
Off we go! Our journey across two countries.
Our voyage begins in the Republic of Ireland, in the north-west.
Following the short Lough Allen Canal, we'll then turn on to the Shannon-Erne Canal.
Crossing into Northern Ireland, our route links up with the great lakes of the River Erne.
Heading ever northwards, we'll reach the end of the waterway at Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh.
It's amazing, isn't it? It's like old Ireland, the Ireland of myths and legend.
Yes, it's wild, very beautiful.
Yes, yes.
The Lough Allen Canal is off the beaten track today, but it was part of a network of canals and rivers connecting rural Ireland to the cities.
This canal transported coal all the way to Dublin.
It's quite difficult to see what is above the waterline and what is reflection.
It's like that poem of AA Milne, isn't it? "The trees bending down to meet the trees.
" "The sun looks down from quiet skies "To where a quiet water lies, "And silent trees stoop down to the trees.
" SHE YELPS Sorry about that.
The trouble is, you see, we've got to keep it absolutely in the centre of the channel.
Oh, darling, are you all right? Ah! Sorry about that.
God almighty.
This journey gives Tim and me a chance to explore our family links with Ireland.
You've got some sort of a family connection with Ireland, haven't you? Well, yes, but I never knew any of them.
I think I had a great-grandmother from County Mayo.
But you've got quite strong Irish connections, haven't you? I mean, is this a journey back to your roots? My roots in Ireland are pretty well all on the east coast.
My family were Anglo-Irish, which was not uncommon at that time, especially around the Dublin area.
I've always been curious about the depth of my Irish roots.
Perhaps on this journey I'll find out how Irish I am.
This is Acres Lake, here.
We'll find lots and lots of these little sort of mini loughs.
Famed for its rain and countless lakes, they say the land in these parts is sold by the gallon.
We're coming to end of the three-mile-long Lough Allen Canal.
"End of navigation.
" So you're going to have to navigate from now on in, darling.
Just leave it to chance.
Ahead is where we turn on to the Shannon-Erne Waterway' It's very, very sharp.
Well done.
.
.
18 miles of river and canal that will lead us toward the great Erne Lakes.
Today, this picturesque stretch of canal is popular with leisure boaters How are you? .
.
but it has a reputation for being the world's least commercially successful canal.
Costing £25 million in today's money to build, its opening in 1860 coincided with the arrival of the railways, making it instantly obsolete.
The canal operated for only nine years, and saw just eight paying boats, generating a total income of under £2,000.
Unsurprisingly, it closed, and remained that way for 126 years.
Good afternoon.
I'll give you a rest.
You are lovely.
Frank McCabe has worked on the canal ever since it was restored and reopened in 1997.
He's also lived beside its banks all his life.
So, as a boy, you must have seen it in very derelict condition.
Yes.
Coming home from school you could walk across the canal.
Aha.
The water would only come up a little bit above your ankles on a very dry summer.
Why was the canal originally opened? What was the real reason for it? Well, you know, we'd just had a famine in this country, and things was at, if you call it, a bad state, so maybe this was the whole idea - to open this canal to give a little bit of respite to people, and get them back on their feet again.
Right, and, yes, a bit of employment.
Yes.
Yeah.
During the potato blight in the 1840s, famine swept through Ireland.
A million died of starvation and a million more were forced to emigrate.
The building of the canal was an attempt to create jobs and save lives.
But by the time construction started, many of the labourers were too weakened by hunger to work.
Frank himself has found evidence of how bad things were back then.
I have a piece of land along the river, just outside of Keshcarrigan, and during the excavation a big pot was dug up, so I took it up on the tractor up to my house, and I discovered afterwards that it was the famine pot.
These pots are lasting reminders of the terrible years of famine.
They were used by government soup kitchens to distribute food to the starving population.
But it was often too little food, too late.
Many labourers building the canal are said to have collapsed through hunger during their shifts.
So I have, at my house, the very pot that fed the men who worked on the canal.
That's great.
A canal born out of such tragic times, has, in recent years, found a new role.
When it came to the refurbishment, that was a pretty huge job, wasn't it? It was indeed.
And you were involved in that.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
I started in the early spring of 1991.
Reconstruction of the canal was an idea born out of the peace process.
Backed by both British and Irish governments, it recreates a lost link between the north and south.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi there.
Hello.
Hello.
People from Northern Ireland who come with their private boats and have a chat with the local southerners Yeah.
.
.
and this is a good thing.
Of course it is.
I didn't ever realise when I was growing up that this canal would be There'd be cruisers going down the canal, and boats, and it would be officially open.
It was one of the good things that happened in my life.
Yeah.
This canal carries many sad memories, but it's also become a symbol of hope for the future, of friendship and peace.
It's been a pleasure meeting you and your good wife, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Ireland.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, lovely meeting you.
And you.
All the best.
Take care.
God bless.
Bye-bye.
During the restoration, every lock on this canal was modernised, and now operates on a push-button hydroelectric system.
'And instead of a metal lock key, I've been issued with some sort of plastic credit card.
So what do we do? I go up to that thing and I put the card in Yes and I do what it tells me.
What does it tell you? Oh, I can't remember.
I'm quite an intelligent person, and I know what to do when people tell me it, but I keep forgetting.
Oh, it's all right.
Yeah.
Pru's condition makes her anxious about new things, but she does understand locks, so I'm sure she'll work it out.
Erm Do I just press that? Nothing happened.
'I've been opening canal locks for nearly half my life, using a system invented three centuries ago.
Oh, it's the wrong gate! I suppose this is what you call progress.
Come on.
Oh, open.
Thank God.
Timbo, are you safely in now? Yep.
Letting the water in.
It's perfectly simple, really, but why does it have to sound like a bin lorry reversing? Thank you.
I'm used to sort of handling locks with a you know, with a windlass and a lot of strength, and on this I just have to press a button.
I can't get used to it, really.
So you feel cheated, do you? Yeah, a bit.
I'm not earning my keep.
Right.
Two swans ahead! Aw Hello, swan.
How are you? Hello.
Yes, they're a pair.
Yeah.
Yes, definitely.
We've reached our mooring for the night, near the village of Leitrim and, for a perfect antidote to the sad history of this stretch of canal, we've been invited to a pub, famous for its traditional music, dance and hospitality.
They're very good, aren't they? Yes.
At Carthy's, anyone who can sing or dance is invited to join in.
This is a local song called My Lovely Leitrim Shore.
So thinking of fond memories We started out from town The birds were singing in the trees As we went walking down I'd like to stop there now, and I'd like to ask Timothy West up to continue the song.
You're crazy.
Will you walk with me once more To a place we've been before? And when strolling down together We can pick the rolling heather And while walking hand-in-hand, We'll recall a time so grand It was so grand Looking out over Lough Allen On that lovely Leitrim Shore.
Thank you.
It's not just about the singing here Bravo! Oh, wow.
That was great.
Great.
.
.
but now Tim's done a turn, I can't really say no.
Right foot first? Right foot first.
Yeah.
So five, six, seven, and eight and go.
Heel, toe, one, two, three It's one of the things I love about Pru - she's always game to try something new.
One, two, three.
Heel and toe And a bow! Well done.
Thank you so much.
Good job.
Good job.
Well, I didn't fall over.
No, you didn't fall over.
We've never been to the lovely Leitrim shore before, but whether it's the hospitality or something deeper, we're feeling very at home.
We're on our first ever voyage through the canals of Ireland.
Travelling along the Shannon-Erne Waterway, we're following a route that takes us from Southern to Northern Ireland.
OK.
Thanks, darling.
OK.
Restored in 1994, this stretch of canal was improved by the installation of new-fangled locks.
I'm getting the hang of this now.
Which is more than can be said for my husband! Tim! Sorry about that! Today we keep heading east.
Travelling through Lough Garadice we'll pass the town of Ballyconnell.
Then, as we cross the border, the waterway opens into Lough Erne and we make our way to the estate of Crom.
Tim looks in his element.
He seems at home out here.
He sang us a song in the pub last night and .
.
it sounded so convincingly Irish, it was quite a surprise.
I suspect that his links with Ireland are deeper and longer lasting than he realises.
First bit of blue sky! It looks as if it's here for a few minutes anyway.
It's beginning to look lovely.
And curiously unlike English canals, I don't know what it is quite.
Perhaps it's the fact that we've met almost no other boat, seemingly alone in a vast unspoiled wilderness.
It's magical.
A countryside which goes on and on for miles and miles.
Lots of starlings! It's time for me to tackle another push button lock.
Can you get off? I don't know, not at the moment.
Can you get a bit nearer? I can't get any nearer than that.
Oh Did you hurt yourself No, it's all right.
No problem, OK.
Every now and again I get a reminder of our limits, but while we can still get up and dust ourselves off, we'll keep going.
And these push button locks certainly make my crew duties a lot easier.
The waters of the canal open out as we enter the vastness of Lough Garadice.
This is a bit of a new experience for us.
On the English canals you sometimes you get a bit of broad water, but nothing like this.
What a magical place! It's a land so rich in legend and the supernatural.
And being out here you can sort of tell why.
Many stories tell of the fairies who live beneath the surface of the loughs.
Irish fairies are an ancient race who were driven into hiding by invading humans.
In calm, clear weather, it's said you can just make out the towers and columns of their underwater palaces.
Boatmen coming home late at night have often told of sweet singing and glimpses of lights far below.
Thank you.
Awaiting us at our mooring is Jack Lynch, a seanchai.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Hey! A bearer of the old lore who keeps the ancient traditions alive.
Come aboard! I will come aboard.
It's a bit warmer down there.
So, welcome to this part of the world.
Lovely to be here! So, tell us about the Irish fairies.
Well A lot of people's picture of fairies is from Victorian times, a little creature with gossamer wings and that.
In the Irish tradition, they're not your little Peter Pan people.
The fairy folk could be like you or me - big, normal people.
They have special powers? They do.
They steal away small baby boys.
Ah, yes.
The Stolen Child, the great Yeats poem.
"Come away, oh human child.
" Yes, of course yes, oh.
And in early photographs of the 20th century you'll see boys are wearing dresses and this is to confuse the fairies.
So the whole fairy belief is pretty strong.
We're quite close to that other world, you know.
They say actually in the Irish tradition, Samhain, or Halloween, that's the time when the curtain between this world and the other world is thinnest and that's when the fairies and the ghosts come into our world.
Can I ask you, Pru, do you believe in fairies? Well when I was little, I absolutely did, you know.
Um, but, oh, now I've grown up I suppose I don't, but it's very difficult not to when you're in Ireland.
So, do you believe in fairies, Jack? Well, now, that's the question.
My father once saw a fairy and heard a Banshee.
Ha-ha! He was a reliable man.
Well, anything he said, I believed.
I haven't yet seen them, but I'll take his word for it.
I'm sure we'll all see fairies at some stage of the night, especially after this Wicklow whiskey! Thank you.
OK? Yeah.
Leaving the lake behind, we follow the canal as it weaves its way towards Northern Ireland.
And this is border country.
We'll be running along the border very shortly and passing the Aghalane Bridge which is in ruins because it was destroyed in 1972.
The Aghalane Bridge was a major link between the two countries.
Its bombing during the troubles severed two close communities for decades.
It's never been repaired.
How do they manage now? How do they get over? There's a new bridge now been built.
The Peace Bridge.
Oh, God bless it.
And that's the one that was destroyed.
Terribly upsetting, the whole thing.
It was a very sad time, bringing people into conflict with each other who previously had worked together, and lived together very well.
Since it was restored and reopened, the canal itself has become a symbol of peace as it reunites north and south.
As the locals say, "Water knows no boundary.
" We're all under the same sky, the same rain, the same umbrella.
We've crossed the border into the Northern Irish County of Fermanagh.
Here, the waterway opens out into vast loughs as we make our way towards Crom Castle and its estate.
I'm pouring a medicinal drink for the skipper.
He's standing out in the pouring rain.
What have you got there? A medicinal draught for you.
Oh.
You pour quite generous whiskies, don't you? Yes, sorry, is it too much? No, it's all right, we'll manage.
We're in Upper Lough Erne now.
Yes.
It's very beautiful.
It is gorgeous, gorgeous.
Even in this light, it's wonderful.
Yes.
What's the baby castle? Well, it's a folly.
This 19th-century folly announces our arrival at the lakeside estate of Crom.
This looks very remote now.
Yes, it does.
But back in 1600 Yeah.
.
.
this was the place to come .
.
and you arrived, always, by boat.
Founded by a Scots settler at the start of the 17th century, Crom has been the ancestral seat of the Earls of Erne for over 200 years.
At its height in the early 19th century, it was also a home for over 100 estate workers and their families.
Crom is spread over a series of islands, linked by stretches of shallow water, and the only way to get around, whether you were a worker, or an Earl, was by boat.
And the same is true today.
So, welcome aboard the Crom cot.
Now, this boat is over 100 years old.
Good Lord! They needed a boat with a very shallow keel on it so you can get in, onto stony shores and stuff like that.
Right.
Our skipper is Malachy from the National Trust, who run the estate today.
It's very remote and peaceful and tranquil now but it would have been a very busy part of the world in its day.
And at the epicentre of the whole wide estates, all connected by water, was Crom.
Oh, right.
Once one of the grandest estates in Ireland, Crom in its heyday was a social hub for the county set and was famous for its parties and its yacht races.
Now, this is the Crom schoolhouse coming into view.
There was once a whole community living out here in this remote spot.
This is where all the children of the estate would have went to school.
How did they get there, the kids? Do you see the stone structure over there? Right, yes.
The shelter? They would have waited over there to get the boat across.
And this is the boat that brought them across.
Every day? Every day.
It's truly a lost world.
Ahead is that Folly built on Gad's Island by the third Earl of Erne in 1847.
A lot of people lived on the estate, worked on the estate, and whenever they got married, they got one day off a year for their honeymoon and they spent it on the island here.
So this is like the honeymoon island.
Oh, sweet.
Do you fancy a second honeymoon out there? Well it would be private, wouldn't it? We wouldn't have waiters saying "I think the lady's just gone upstairs.
" So, just coming up here on our left is the old castle.
Oh, right.
Crom's history is far from being all honeymoons and yacht races.
Its origins lie in a bloody period of Irish and British history.
This is the original 1610 plantation castle.
Just enough of the ruin to get a clear idea of how it must have been.
The castle withstood two sieges during the Jacobite Rebellion.
The second, in 1689, was particularly brutal and its memory still scars the land today.
So, in the second siege, in July of that year, a lot of people lost their lives.
A lot of them fled and they had all their boats, if you look over here, they had all their boats tethered to Gad Island, but somebody cut the lines, the boats were tethered up so they couldn't flee in boats, so they had to swim or wade around the other side of the island and they were all cut down.
There were so many of them killed, they reckon 3,000 or 4,000 that the waters ran red with blood, so it's called The Bloody Pass.
The Bloody Pass - that casts a different light on this idyllic stretch of water.
So far, this journey has revealed the joy, the myths and the tragedy of this land.
Now it's time to head to the town of Enniskillen at the heart of the waterway, where we'll uncover some personal history with the help of a local genealogist.
Steer between those two posts.
No, between those two posts.
I know! But it's miles over here! Now what, Skipper? I'm lost now, completely.
Oh! We went the wrong way round the folly.
When I was a lad I served a term as office boy to an attorney's firm I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor and I polished up the handle of the big front door He polished up the handle of the big front door I polished up that handle so carefully That now I am the ruler of the Queen's Navy He polished up the handle so carefully That now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navy.
We're on a voyage through Ireland's waterways having been temporarily lost, things are now looking up.
We've crossed into Northern Ireland, and are now following the River Erne through the Upper Lough in County Fermanagh, heading for the town of Enniskillen.
At Enniskillen, we'll be meeting a genealogist to uncover the full story of Tim's links with Ireland.
My mother Olive was born in Dublin.
My grandparents were Anglo-Irish.
It was my Anglo-Irish grandfather in fact who started the long family tradition of acting.
He had a wonderful name.
C W Carleton Crowe was his professional stage name.
Carleton Crowe doesn't sound very Irish to me.
Well, Crowe is.
Yes.
Is it? Oh, yes.
Yes, Crowe's certainly very Irish.
I don't know whether Carleton was an affectation, or whether it really did have some kind of ancestral .
.
probity.
C W.
We shall see, as we're now approaching Enniskillen.
The town of Enniskillen has been marked by the Troubles and the Remembrance Day bombing of 1987 shocked the world.
11 people lost their lives that day, and 63 were injured.
Since then, the town has reclaimed its peaceful identity.
We're approaching Enniskillen Castle.
It's been a stronghold since the 1400s, in the days of the Irish Chieftains.
But this later castle was built by a settler from London.
Good morning.
You're very welcome to Enniskillen.
Good morning.
Hello.
Good morning.
We're greeted by Catherine, an expert on the castle's history.
This structure was built by a man called William Cole, who came to Enniskillen at the beginning of the 17th century, as part of a process called The Plantation of Ulster.
Where we see English and Scottish settlers coming to Ulster.
And, erm, specifically here in Enniskillen, we have William Cole who developed the town.
Why was this such an important spot? Because Enniskillen is an island, and on the island you build a castle for all those strategically important reasons.
Looking out over this narrow point of access into Ulster.
Yes Enniskillen itself is an island town, Inis Ceithleann, the Island of Cathleen, and is unique for being the only island town in Ireland, completely surrounded by water.
Right.
Catherine is taking us through the gatehouse, into the heart of the castle.
Home to the genealogy department, where more personal histories are unfolded.
We've been doing some research into your own family history, here at the museum, and have some information that you might be interested in.
So if we maybe go this way.
So, this is Frank.
Hello.
Hello.
What I know of my Irish ancestry so far is that they came from the Dublin area, and my grandfather was the Irish actor Christopher Carleton Crowe.
I'd always imagined he'd made up the Carleton bit as a good stage name.
So .
.
we start off with your great grandmother.
Her maiden name was Carleton.
Ah-hah.
We wondered whether that Carleton was a real name, or you know, an affectation.
But apparently it was a real name.
No, no, it's definitely a real name.
And I mean, actually, that's what's most interesting because, the Carletons were an English family Yeah who came to Ireland during The Plantation.
Oh, that far back.
Yeah.
Yes.
Very far back.
Uh-huh.
You have a very, very strong connection with Ireland, and, particularly, with Fermanagh.
We didn't know that did we? Not at all, no.
And you have some very illustrious ancestors.
That's Sir Guy Carleton, who was, er, from Fermanagh, was Governor General of Canada.
And he is connected to your family.
Wow.
Now, this is a family who came from Cumberland, in what is now modern-day Cumbria.
Yeah.
It's given me a lot to think about.
An enormous amount.
We now realise that part of your family 400 years ago, the Carletons, travelled to Fermanagh.
They established themselves here.
Yes.
And so perhaps maybe yourself and Pru here are retracing the journey that they may have taken along the water.
Yes, yes, indeed.
And it's extraordinary to be here in the one place where probably a lot of that history can best be unfolded.
Absolutely, yeah.
On the ground where we can see where they would have been, and where they lived when they were here.
Well, it's not every day that you discover you have a new family from a new place.
Somewhere that you'd never been before.
Back on the boat, Tim immediately immerses himself in the newly discovered branch of his family tree.
I've come across a mention of an estate, a very small estate, called Rossfad.
Built by Lancelot Carleton, which by extraordinary chance is a little bit further up the Lough from where we are now.
So we can visit your heritage.
We could go and have a look at it, yes.
It's very exciting, isn't it? It gets more and more extraordinary.
I thought I'd married a penniless actor.
Did you? Have I married into the landed gentry? I'm afraid so, yes, yes.
Oh, it's a bit embarrassing.
Tim has always been so proud of those he loves the most.
But this family revelation has moved him.
Here we are, in a county I've never been to before on a lough that I never knew existed.
And, er, what do I find? Not only that I have relations in this part of the country, but that we're actually sailing towards a house that belonged to one of them.
And we can go and visit it and I mean it's just extraordinary, isn't it? Our Irish voyage of discovery has become a personal journey back into my family's past.
Today, we reach the spot where they settled four centuries ago.
It's absolutely extraordinary, having only just learned of the existence of this family of mine, here, anywhere here Yes.
.
.
to suddenly find oneself sailing past their house.
Following the Erne Waterway ever northwards, we'll pass the sacred island of Devenish, before stopping off at my ancestors' estate.
We'll then push on to the top of the loch, at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
That's Devenish Island.
Sounds very sinister.
Yes, devilish.
Devilish, yes.
Well, perhaps it was at some point.
It's an ancient monastery.
Strange.
The monastery was founded 1,500 years ago.
Today, it's an isolated and mysterious place.
But throughout the Middle Ages it was a busy stopping-off point for pilgrims from all over Europe.
And it was still occupied well into the 16th century.
Look at these graves.
I wonder if there might be a Carlton among them? Oh New Irish ancestors.
Yeah.
It's possible.
Time for our final push towards Rossfad.
Part of my family lived here on this loch .
.
for 400 years.
See that gap between the trees? Yes, yes.
Well, I think that's the house.
It's got to be.
Quite a substantial house.
The drawing that I've been given of my relatives' 17th-century residence, shows a fortified manor house.
But although some of the old stone wall still stands Rossfad has been transformed into a comfortable-looking Georgian home.
So, here's some of the old bit and probably that wall.
That's right.
Good afternoon.
Hello, hello.
You're very welcome to Rossfad.
Your ancestral home.
I know.
Would you believe it? My ancestors, the Carltons, are, I presume, long gone, as the house's current owner is a local doctor, John Williams.
The entrance hall.
Beautiful, isn't it? It is nice, isn't it? What do you think? I think it's wonderful.
Wonderful.
I don't recognise any of it, of course, but It's enchanting.
I wish Come into the drawing room and take the weight off your feet.
So, this is Heather.
'John and his daughter-in-law Heather 'have done some background research on who owned this land.
' So, the Carltons came here in 1613, we believe.
And then, I think about 100 years later, a Carlton daughter married a Richardson.
So the Richardsons inherited Rossfad through marriage.
And they continued to live here until 1967.
So, my family, who first moved here in 1613, have been living here right up till, eh, really, more or less, just a while before you bought the house.
Mm-hm.
That's right.
1917.
That's a long time.
It's extraordinary.
A branch of my family lived on this spot for almost 400 years.
I had no idea that these Carltons were a proper family that dated back all this way and that I was directly related to them.
And then I found not only that they came out of a manor, they actually had a house on the loch that we were sailing along at that moment.
Wow.
It is.
It's creepy.
That's uncanny, isn't it? It is uncanny.
Talk about small worlds.
So, your interest in boats and the water is obviously genetic, because the Carltons had no other way of getting around.
So, canal boats were in the blood, darling? Canal boats, obviously, yes, yes.
'Canal boats and this beautiful land.
' Thank you so much.
Yes, thank you so much.
Lovely to meet you.
Goodbye.
Four centuries ago, part of my family left England and set sail for Ireland and the banks of Loch Erne.
They sailed the same waters and saw the same sights as we're seeing today.
It's a waterway entwined with my family's history.
Following canal, loch and river, we've uncovered a turbulent and sometimes painful past.
We've learnt that water knows no boundaries.
Oh, how nice! We found only warmth and friendship.
It's been a pleasure meeting you and your good wife.
On a voyage that's given us a glimpse into my family's past.
A past I never knew existed.
What do you think? I think it's I think it's wonderful.
Where are we aiming for? Well I can't see any land ahead now, so maybe it'd be a good idea if we turned back.
Before we end up in America, you mean? Probably in America, or at the bottom of the sea.
Coming soon our two greatest passions combined - canals and theatre.
Off to Stratford.
The actor's spiritual home.
And we embrace a new culture in Sweden.
So, are you feeling Swedish? Terribly Swedish.
As we embark on our greatest canal journey yet.
I used to dream about sailing round the world.
You've fulfilled all my childhood dreams for me.
Thank you.