Blakes of the Hollow

A beautiful and friendly pub on Enniskillen’s high street, worth popping in to have a look and a drink or too. They have fresh soup at lunch and I think you can get food delivered up from the adjacent restaurant.

Great old time pub that has been renovated for more space. interior is very nice as well as staff and drink selection.

«The» Pub in Enniskillen; Thursday night’s pretty crowded and often live music — nothing special, but a thursdays must be!

Blakes, or Blakes of the Hollow as it’s known, (apparently because it’s in a bit of a dip in the street), is not only one of the most well known pubs in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, but in all of Ulster.
With a very imposing & picturesque frontage it’s a essentially a grand old victorian bar with traditional, partitioned wooden booths.
I’m old enough to feel old enough to remember pubs like this being widespread before growing concerns gutted the interiors & made them soulessly open plan, something akin to any branch of TJ Wetherspoon in fact. God I sound like an old campaign for real ale enthusiast! But now pubs like this have become a rarity, and talking of the ale it was a lovely drop of Guinness they served up here.
The largish party I was with managed to cram into a booth, there’s something so great when you’re with a good crowd, and you’re able to both soak up the atmosphere of the pub, as well as having an enclosed area to yourselves. This is why I love these traditional booths, which for some reason I always associate more with Ireland than anywhere else.
Blakes is usually popularly packed of an evening, apparently everyone comes here, local boy & actor Adrian Dunbar who appeared in & wrote the fabulous Irish nostalgia film ‘Hear My Song’, for one. As well as the old bit, there’s also lot of newer additions to the building, namely upstairs over 2 floors there’s the separate atrium bar, & also an upmarket bistro down below. But it’s the 120 year old front bar that’s where the real atmosphere is.