County Clare

One of our favourite movies of all time is "The Boys and Girl of County Clare" a film about two very competitive brothers whose respective musical groups are trying to win a national ceili music festival contest. The movie is set in County Clare, and features a lot of very good music.

On Sunday morning we headed south around Galway Bay with Allan. We had no real objective other than to be in the town of Doolin by the evening where we were booked into the local hostel, and Lucy wanted to see a lighthouse. As such we simply wandered around the coast.

Unpronouncable street signs

The coastline and mountainous area we drove through is known as the Burren and is geologically famous due to its limestone pavement. We learnt that the barren limestone actually creates a soil condition unique to this part of Ireland which allows a huge diversity of mediterranean and alpine plants and flowers to survive. As such we found a huge variety of beautiful spring flowers including wild roses and orchids. Geoff was more interested in the weird and wonderful rock formations, razor sharp in places, and polished smooth in others.

A lonely lighthouse and a wild sea at Black Head Point.

Rock farming.... yes, those are stone walls dividing the land up.  Not sure those big rocks were planning on escaping though.....!

The limestone pavement is amazing and only when you get up close do you see the wild flowers in between.

We continued on from the coastline to the interior where the landscape continued to amaze us. There are numerous cave systems due to the limestone as well as a fascinating turloughs (lakes) which can appear, and then disappear within a matter of hours due to water tables and rainfall (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turlough_(lake)).

We popped in to visit a megalithic site called Poulnabrone portal tomb, a burial ground dating back to 4200BC. It is incredible to think these structures still stand after so many years.

Poulnabrone Portal Tomb

Its pretty big! the roof is over 3 tonnes!

Allan dropped us off in Doolin, and will join up with us later for a few days. In the meantime we have met up with Karl and Kim Hughes. Karl is brother to a work contact of Geoff's and lives in the area. Karl took us for a drive through the Burren via some of his favourite spots, including Kilfenora Cathedral (the smallest in Europe) and an ancient Pagan fertility abbey! We continued then to hike up into the Burren so we could fully appreciate the place. The weather prediction had looked ominous, yet the rain held back until we'd at least finished our lunch before starting to bucket down. Ironically, the gale force wind following the rain dried us within minutes! Karl's knowledge of the local flora was a wonderful resource for Lucy as she quizzed him on almost everything we saw. He also know a few really special spots on the Burren which he took us to.

The pagan fertility symbol above the entrance to the church. Anyone able to see what it is depicting?

Mullagh Mora - we climbed this peak

Geoff and Karl checking out fossils in the limestone

The Burren means 'stoney place' in Irish - they weren't kidding!

Amazing lines in the limestone

Tonight we are heading to a nearby pub to sample the local music for which Doolin is renowned!