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Introducing The Burren
The Burren region is rocky and windswept, an apt metaphor for the hardscrabble lives of those who’ve eked out an existence here. It stretches across northern Clare, from the Atlantic coast to Kinvara in County Galway, a unique limestone landscape that was shaped beneath ancient seas, and then forced high and dry during some great geological cataclysm. The sea is not muted here by offshore islands or muffled promontories, as it sometimes is on the coasts of Kerry and Galway. In the Burren, land and sea seem to merge into one vast, exhilarating space beneath huge skies.
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Boireann is the Irish term for ‘rocky country’, a plain but graphic description of the Burren’s acres of silvery limestone karst pavements. The pavements, known as ‘clints’, lie like huge, scattered bones across the swooping hills. Between the seams of rock lie narrow fissures, known as ‘grykes’. Their humid, sheltered conditions support exquisite wild flowers in spring, lending the Burren its other great charm: brilliant, if ephemeral, colour amid so much arid beauty. There are also intriguing villages to enjoy, especially along the coast and in the south Burren. These include Doolin on the west coast, Kilfenora inland and Ballyvaughan in the north, on the shores of Galway Bay. The Burren’s coastline is made up of rocky foreshores, occasional beaches and bare limestone cliffs, while inland lies a haunting landscape of rocky hills peppered with ancient burial chambers and medieval ruins. If driving, take any road – the smaller the better – and see what you discover: you’ll never be lost for long.
Large areas of the Burren, about 40, 000 hectares in all, have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation. Apart from being against the law, it makes ecological sense not to remove plants or to damage walls, ancient monuments or the landscape itself. Visitors are also asked to resist the temptation to erect ‘sham’ replicas of dolmens and other monuments, however small, including Spinal Tap size.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
