Brackley Lake – Brackley Lough on the maps, Breac Loch or ‘speckled lake’ in Irish – is a 400-acre sheet of water west of the N87 near Bawnboy, and it’s the size that surprises people. At 2.1km long it’s one of the bigger lakes in this corner of west Cavan, yet it stays quiet: anglers who know it call it under-fished, which is high praise if you’re the one with a rod. It feeds the River Blackwater and holds a low wooded islet, Baron’s Island, off the shore.
If you’re coming for one thing, come for the bream. The lake runs with bream, skimmers, roach, hybrids, perch, pike and eels, and it’s free to fish with no permit – a rarer combination than it sounds. The one rule worth knowing before you arrive: live bait is prohibited when you’re targeting pike.
Fishing
Bream are the fish of choice here, with plenty of pike thrown in and good roach and hybrid sport besides. The water is relatively under-fished, so it rewards a bit of pre-baiting and patience rather than a quick session. Early mornings and overcast days fish best, and the calm, sheltered margins suit beginners as well as match anglers.
The access point everyone uses is Prospect Point – a long, narrow lane drops down to a waterside car park with a slipway, and from there it’s a short walk along the peninsula to a good stretch of pegs over the stile. The Keepers Arms guesthouse in Bawnboy is two minutes’ drive away and a useful base; Ballyconnell is about six miles off, Ballinamore around ten.
What to know before you go
This is a fishing lake first and an amenity second. There’s no developed lakeside loop, no café and no toilets at the water, and the lane to Prospect Point is single-track with limited parking that fills on a fine summer weekend – arrive early. For a view rather than a fish, the Bawnboy looped walk climbs about 130m to a viewing area that looks down over the lake, which is the easiest way to take in its scale.
Setting and history
The lake sits on a geological seam: smooth glacial drumlins roll away to the south, while to the north the ground rises into the limestone uplands of the Cuilcagh Lakelands (Marble Arch Caves) Global Geopark. The basin was scooped out by retreating ice at the end of the last glaciation.
The townland of Brackley lies in the civil parish of Templeport and the old barony of Tullyhaw. In the Plantation of Ulster, by a grant of 26 June 1615, the land here was given to the brothers Sir George and Sir Richard Graeme to form part of the Manor of Greame – an Inquisition at Cavan in 1627 found George Graeme had held a poll of Brackley before his death in 1624.
Nearby
- Bear Essentials – a teddy-bear workshop near Bawnboy village, an easy indoor option with children if the weather turns.
- Cavan Burren Park – dolmens and a wedge tomb on the Cuilcagh slopes near Blacklion, with free entry and a visitor centre.
To find it from Bawnboy, take the N87 towards Sligo for about 2.1 miles, turn left at the crossroads and follow the lane past Prospect House down to the lake.