The Burren

[Johnny Redgate]

I'm determined to make a return visit to the Burren in County Clare this June if I can get away from the farm for a week. It must be 15 years since I last went there. I have had a couple of potholing trips and a cycling tour but would like to do some more botanising this time. Does anyone have favourite bits that they would recommend?

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, we talk about it every year but still haven't made it! One day .... when is the best time to visit for the flora?

[diggleken]

I have been a couple of times and stayed there too, and my best times vary depending on what you want to find.
But in general, for flora, probably late may to mid june is richest, when the turloughs are dried pretty much and the limestone pavement is in full bloom then , if you see what I mean!
But later in full summer is good too........................
Magical place, you'll spend hours exploring - dont forget the rock pools and littoral and dune stuff at Fanore, besides on the hills, and birds and insects - oh I need to go again!
A couple of good books to tickle your fancy are Natural History of the Burren by Gordon D'arcy and A Burren journal by Sarah Poyntz.
Good luck and report back?
Cheers
Ken

[treecreeper]

I was last there 15 years ago as well. I rented a cottage right in the Burren but I can't remember the location. I remember the plants though, it was late June and it was two weeks of botanical heaven. I dread to think what they have done to the place in the intervening years though. I remember new roads being marked out with tape and there was talk of some nightmarish 'tourist honeypot' being built right in the middle of the Burren. They wanted to cut the top off one of the limestone hills to accommodate it. I'm afraid to go back.

[Johnny Redgate]

Originally Posted by treecreeper

I was last there 15 years ago as well. I rented a cottage right in the Burren but I can't remember the location. I remember the plants though, it was late June and it was two weeks of botanical heaven. I dread to think what they have done to the place in the intervening years though. I remember new roads being marked out with tape and there was talk of some nightmarish 'tourist honeypot' being built right in the middle of the Burren. They wanted to cut the top off one of the limestone hills to accommodate it. I'm afraid to go back.

Oh.
Someone tell me its not so bad, please.

[solus]

Don't panic!! All is well and the area was restored to as it was before - the centre was never built! It was going to be at one end of Loch Gealain & Mullach Mor but after making a car parking area and starting on some walling there was some legal dispute about toilets and sewage and visitor pressure and narrow roads so it was (thankfully!) dropped. Last time I was there (April 2007) there was nothing untoward to see at all. We had seen it once when it looked like everything was going ahead - even a bear with very little brain could see that the single-track lane and the inevitable big tour coaches wouldn't go together at all well!

Around the third week in May (around the 21st) is the time to go for the Dense-flowered Orchids on the Burren, June for the best of the rest. Lisdoonvarna is a good base as it is close to the coast (also with access to the Aran Islands from Doolin) and easy for the whole Burren area. Having been there several times since about 1990 I have to say that on our last visit I was a little disappointed to discover that the Cliffs of Moher had a new (expensive!) visitor centre and car park and the cliff path had been fenced/walled off and the Poulnabrone Dolmen was also roped off with "Jobsworths" and CCTV to ensure no-one crossed the line... I appreciate this is probably and primarily to protect the monument from the visitors but other lesser monuments nearby that once had been signposted from the road were now hidden behind higher walls and access was definitey discouraged. Our friends who we stayed with reckoned a lot of the fences and "Keep out" notices were put there by farmers who did not want to be sued by some litigious American tourist who had fallen over on a rock while on the farmer's land. However, even we were deterred from our proposed visit to one archaeological site by the sight of a large bull walking menacingly towards us acroos the field we needed to cross ...

Forgot - any where along the Coast Road from Lisdoonvarna to Ballyvaughan is good for flowers - just walk out on either side of the road (preferably while avoiding the bus loads of American and Japanese tourists who never stay long or wander far from their coach!) If you climb up a little way that can also be good - but really anywhere can be productive with the Mullach Mor area inland also being good. Don't forget to look out for Father Ted's House!

[diggleken]

What a terrific memory jerking thread.
Just to add, and of course, not forgetting the best seafood chowder in Ireland at Monks bar in Ballyvaughan!
Cheers
Ken

[Johnny Redgate]

Originally Posted by diggleken

What a terrific memory jerking thread.
Just to add, and of course, not forgetting the best seafood chowder in Ireland at Monks bar in Ballyvaughan!
Cheers
Ken

Blimey - yes I remember the chowder there from my cycling trip. We camped on a little patch of ground between the sea and a belt of scrub almost in the village. Then cycled up that long hill to the dolmen.

Has anyone else been potholing there? I found it a bit un-nerving because the caves are quite close to the surface and geologically young with few higher level escape passages. And as you know, it rains a lot in Ireland, especially in March when we went.

[solus]

It rained one day in April 2007 when we were last there too! We were (trying!) to find another archaeological site and missed it completely and walked miles too far in the worsening rain. (We spotted it over a field on the way back but were by then too wet and cold and tired to bother about seeing it close-to!) We ended up in the cafe at Ballyvaughan where we dripped all over the floor, so much so that the lady had to mop up around us - twice!

Back in our room at the B&B we were to be found attempting to dry the contents of our pockets - notebook, wallet, euro notes, mobile phone etc. with the hair dryer - and we'd been wearing "waterproofs"!! Is that what they mean by "money-laundering"?!!?

As for potholing, I'm happier above ground, thanks!

[treecreeper]

Originally Posted by solus

Don't panic!! All is well and the area was restored to as it was before - the centre was never built! It was going to be at one end of Loch Gealain & Mullach Mor but after making a car parking area and starting on some walling there was some legal dispute about toilets and sewage and visitor pressure and narrow roads so it was (thankfully!) dropped. Last time I was there (April 2007) there was nothing untoward to see at all. We had seen it once when it looked like everything was going ahead - even a bear with very little brain could see that the single-track lane and the inevitable big tour coaches wouldn't go together at all well!

Solus, this is an enormous relief. I remember at the time I mentioned the plan to my inlaws, who live in County Galway. They just laughed and said it would never happen. They said government schemes never came to anything.