Erneside Shopping Centre: “Fetch me a Brandy”

First up, I will say that I harbour a great loathing for shopping centres. I find them sterile, soulless, tedious and depressing places only to be put up with for the minimum time necessary to get what one needs there-in and get out. Given the number of people that linger in these places as if they were houses of pleasure I am clearly in a minority in holding the view that I do.

That said, if you need some shopping therapy the Erneside  Shopping Centre exists.

Most shopping centres have a major supermarket as an anchor tenant. The Erneside Shopping Centre did when it first opened. It no longer has (unless you are posh/wealthy enough to classify a small Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) food hall as a supermarket). I mention this lest the boating fraternity or other self-catering travellers turn up here expecting to stock up on food and the like.

What you will find here are a couple of reasonable café standard eateries including a Costa Coffee outlet which, in addition to offering drinks and light food, provides that all important thing for today’s traveller – free internet. You’ll have to pick up a password from the counter once you have purchased something. Free internet is a scarce commodity in Enniskillen.

I have already mentioned M&S and indeed its small food hall is a good spot to pick up a treat or two.

Outside food, and of interest to the visitor, is a Belleek pottery outlet (Belleek Living). This is a useful option if you can’t make it to the factory outlet in Belleek and you want to pick up some of this wonderful pottery. Be careful though as lots of their stock is now made outside Northern Ireland.

In addition to the above, there is a jewellers, sports shop, stationery/card shop, and a Poundland, Argos and Vodafone outlet as well as the usual assortment of clothes shops found in this sort of place. Pardon me, Dear Reader, I feel a little sick!  Or in the words of King George IV:

‘Harris, I am not well, fetch me a brandy.’  

Of course, His Majesty was not lamenting the Erneside Shopping Centre which opened some time after his demise. I return to the King’s utterance in my Castle Coole Review).

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Should you have need for a supermarket there is a massive Tesco and Asda store, both only a short walk from the Erneside Shopping Centre. Size-wise both these stores are way bigger than a small town like Enniskillen could support on its own. This begs some explanation.

The explanation is simple. Enniskillen is a border town in Northern Ireland where the currency is the Pound Sterling. A few kilometres away is the Republic of Ireland which uses the Euro. Asda and Tesco both opened here when the Euro was very strong against the Pound and at a time the Southern Irish economy was booming. For years both stores (and the town generally) where packed with Southern Irish shoppers. Times have changed and now you will have no issues finding a parking spot! Swings of fortune like this are part and parcel of doing business in a border town.

Erneside Shopping Centre Opening Hours

Mon-Wed and Sat – 9am -6pm
Thur-Fri – 9am-9pm
Sun – 1pm-6pm

Noting that some store hours may differ to these hours.

---

This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries based on many trips to Enniskillen. I suggest you continue with my next entry – Castle Coole – Snubbed by the King – or to start the loop at the beginning go to my introductory entry – “Fare thee well Enniskillen, ………..”

---