Small town in
Northern Ireland, sixteen miles from both
Omagh and
Enniskillen, situated in North Fermanagh's Glendarragh Valley adjacent to Lower
Lough Erne. Ederney and its environs boast a population of several thousand people. There is a children's playground, pitch and putt course, tennis court, and football park within the town.
Local historic sites include the Deer Park (Kilterney), which is an ancient religious settlement. Ederney’s old Townhall, the Glendarragh Wishing Well and St. Joseph’s Church are also interesting landmarks that particularly characterize the town.
Traditionally Ederney was the most thriving village of the three in the Glendarragh Valley. As a village it arose as a crossing place in the middle of the valley which tended to flood freely in times of heavy rain. At Ederney the main road from Enniskillen via Irvinestown towards Castlederg and Derry crossed the river here where the firm ground made the passage easier.
The name Ederney is said to come from the Gaelic word for "ambush". River crossings were always a good place to set up an ambush and especially if the local topography funneled travellers into a relatively narrow pass as it does here. There is also an alternative and much more ancient possible meaning for the name of the village; on the first ever known map of Ireland, that of the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, there is a tribe marked just north of the Erne as the Erdini. It is more than possible that the name Ederney is the only surviving trace of that ancient tribe recorded more than 2,000 years ago.