Travel Guide Burren

The Burren covers the north-western part of County Clare and a small part of northern County Galway. Boireann means, in Gaelic, "the rocky country", an accurate description of the region. The grey and desolate landscape of the Burren is unique in Europe. Large, cracked limestone boulders stretch as far as the eye can see, with flowers and plants growing in their midst, adding a special charm to the place. The Burren shoreline is made up of splendid cliffs and a few small lost beaches. The area is also dotted with friendly villages, dolmens, one of the most famous of which is Poulnabrone, tombs, and offers wonderful walking opportunities.A geological and archaeological description is necessary. The soil of the Burren is particular: of a nature that geologists call karstic, it is of a porous limestone which underwent an intense glaciation about 15 000 years ago. Before this glaciation, the climate facilitated the flowering of plants of the so-called Lusitanian (southern) climate. The ice brought the conditions for a northern type of flowering; when it gradually evaporated, the two types of plants coexisted and, since then, they compose this strange paradise, both arid and flowery. Arid, when the eye discovers these banks of stratified rock and this cracked, fissured, honeycombed limestone, and flowering when clumps of brightly colored plants intrude between two crevices... Botanists from all over the world are enchanted by this flora: alpine, Mediterranean and tropical plants are gathered in this rocky microcosm.