Pottery at Belleek goes back to John Caldwell Bloomfield, a landowner on Lower Lough Erne who wanted to give work to his tenants after the Great Famine. A geological survey in 1852 found feldspar and kaolin, the raw materials for porcelain, on his land, and the business has traded as Belleek Pottery since 1884. The factory in Belleek, at the western tip of the lough on the border with County Donegal, is still known for its Parian ware, a porcelain so thin it is slightly translucent, with an iridescent surface.
A visitor centre has been open since 1989 and draws around 150,000 people a year. About 70 percent of what the pottery makes is exported. It makes a good stop on the drive round the Lower Lough or on the way to the Donegal coast.