Cliffs of Moher and The Burren

We started our day touring the Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic coast of County Clare. A light rain made our visit feel especially authentic. The cliffs are spectacular, and the wind and rain emphasized the wildness of it all.

The cliffs consist of layer on layer of sedimentary rock, mainly shale and sandstone, that have been eroded by the sea over the millennia. They are 214 metres high at the visitors' centre where we were. They're also a protected ecological zone with an estimated 30,000 birds living on the cliffs, representing more than 20 species.

That little blob on top of the cliff in the photo to the left is O'Brien's Tower. At the bottom of the photo is the footpath along the edge of the cliff, outside of the official fenced path. You can see how dangerous the path is — it's slippery, and there have been recent rock slides. We stayed on the safe side.

That pointy bit in the photo is Branaunmore sea stack. See below for a closer look.

We just learned that yesterday, there was a sophisticated burglary at the visitor centre. The burglars cut the electricity and made off with 20,000 Euro. As a result the place was closed, so we were lucky we went today.

After the cliffs, we drove to The Burren (Boireann, meaning "great rock"). It's an area of some 250 square kilometres. Underfoot were limestone pavements with criss-crossing cracks known as "grikes", leaving isolated rocks called "clints". It must be beautiful in the spring, with arctic, Mediterranean and Alpine plants growing side-by-side between the stones.

One of the attractions in The Burren is the Caherconnell cashel or ringfort. Ireland has thousands of these ancient settlement sites, but this one is especially large and well preserved. It has a diameter of 42 metres; its walls are up to three metres thick and up to three metres high. Before we explored the actual fort, we saw an audio-visual  presentation about life within its walls.

Excavation has uncovered several phases of activity within Caherconnell cashel. The two earliest pre-date the construction of the enclosure. A low burial mound contains the remains of two infants and an elderly woman, all dating from the late 6th/early 7th century. The people who constructed the cashel in the 10th century deliberately incorporated the earlier burial mound into their new settlement.

There's so much more to say about this amazing place. Look up the Caherconnell Archaeological Field School if you're motivated to know more. We found it all quite fascinating.

After exploring the cashel, we visited another part of The Burren to see the Poulnabrone portal tomb. It contains the remains of about two dozen people, and has been dated to the Neolithic period, between 4200 BC and 2900 BC

It is one of 174 such tombs in Ireland. One interesting feature is the capstone on top — a rock slab weighing 1.5 tonnes. Obviously building this thing took a coordinated effort.

To get to these wonderful sites, we had to drive on a lot of crazy-narrow roads. Some had switchbacks, some had vegetation down the centre, some had thick hedgerows on either side, one had cattle that we had to follow — all had two-way traffic.  Following is an example, along with a photo Fred took of me directly after the drive.