70. The Hollander

If you should happen to see a Dutch girl in full traditional costume on the street in Irvinestown you can safely bet she is one of the waitresses from The Hollander Bar/ Restaurant, an establishment that is in every respect worthy of the most favourable comments.

Ask to see its Visitors’ Book and you’ll read rave notices from customers from all parts of the world.
The owners are the Holland family, which accounts for the proliferation of things Dutch, even down to windmills on the ties of the staff!

Still more striking is the aeroplane theme which is in tribute to the R.A.F. and Canadian pilots stationed at Castle Archdale during the First and Second World Wars. The walls of the bar display authentic photographs of fighter planes and pilots from both wars, and if that’s not enough, how about the two actual plane propellors mounted high up on the arched wall?

One is from a First World War Sopworth Pup, the other from an Avro Anson of World War Two vintage.
It’s worth remembering that it was Castle Archdale based planes scanning the Atlantic that found the famous but fugitive German battleship, the Bismarck.

The Hollander Bar/ Restaurant is the first to win together in the same year the 1989 Ergas Restaurant of the Year Award in Fermanagh and the 1989 Bushmills Bar of the Year Award in Fermanagh.
Father and son are the chefs and ensure that top class cuisine is presented in absolutely spotless conditions.

We just have to add that the toilets (which feature an extra wide corridor and Disabled Persons’ for those in wheelchairs) are the cleanest we have ever visited. Incidentally, if you are Dutch or German or whatever, you’ll be able to watch videos in the bar with subtitles in your particular language.
If you want to ‘go Dutch’ then Irvinestown is the place for you!