Gad Island

Gad Island is a small rocky outcrop in Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, where a circular castellated tower rose in 1847 to mark the birth of Lord Erne’s eldest son. The structure cost over two hundred pounds, employed local masons, and featured pebbled walls, a domed ceiling, and a projecting turret that doubled as a chimney. People later stripped its wooden doors and window frames for firewood, reducing the once ornate hermit’s tower to a bare stone shell. What remains is not a grand palace but a deliberate gesture of pride and generosity, built on water and stripped by necessity.