The Burren, Ireland

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Kilfenora has one of the most beautiful and most unique Celtic High Crosses in Ireland : The Doorty Cross, showing a bishop and 2 other people. Nowadays Kilfenora is just a tiny village but once it had been one of the most important centres of religion in Ireland and it even has also quite a unique status inside the catholic church: that small parish is at the same time an episcopate and their bishop is the pope - don't ask me, how this works, it is just a heritage of the 12th century that was never changed since...
On my other pictures about the church in Kilfenora you may see some of the very few great works of art that are still left over after the church had been destroyed several times.
At the small cemetery around the old cathedral-ruins there were once 7 high-crosses - see another one on my 5th picture !
You may enter the cemetery freely and without restrictions during the day !

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The Burren is a unique piece of nature in the west of Ireland. It covers an area of 300 square kilometers in the County Clare and is bordered by the Galway Bay in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and lower grounds in the south and east.

The Burren is derived from the Gaelic word for "stony place" and that is exactly what it is. Hardly nothing grows in this area, where the ground is made from limestone that makes the area rough and hardly impossible to live in, except for some famous and rare flower species that attracts nature lovers from all over the world. I found this nice quote about the Burren that indicates the roughness of the area:

"The Burren. Where there are no trees to hang a man. Where there is not enough water to drown him. And if you finally succeeded in killing him, it's too rocky to bury him."
But besides all this, The Burren also is archeologically interesting. Some caves are discovered here as well as some very old so called Dolmens: old graves that were made here many centuries ago.

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Burren is an environmental wonderland composed mainly of limestone. It stretches over 260 square km, reaching from the sea-level to the height of 300 m. The limestone hides a network of caves and on the surface has been smoothed to form kind of pavements separated by deep, narrow vertical cracks.
Ludlow, one of Cromwell's men, described Burren in this way: "not enough wood to hang a man, not enough water to drown him, and not enough earth to bury him". Although his words reflect the nature of Burren very well, it is not as barren as it might seem. In fact, over 70% of Ireland's native flora can be found in Burren, including 24 of 28 native orchid species. Altogether about 600 plant species can be spotted here and Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants grow here side by side. The colourful flowers against grey rock must look especially beautiful in spring but visiting Burren in August was also a real treat for us.

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This was my absolutely favourite landscape - very barren and bleak, just stones, thistles, almost no other vegetation - and nobody really knows how come! I would have loved to stay there a little while longer and wander about some more - so this is another good reason to come back!

The major activities if you're going to Ireland are : fishing,siteseeing,walking and any watersport related things.

We went to Ireland for the beauty of the nature and for fishing.

Don't forget to visit Dublin and try out The Guinness Brewery and the Jameson Distillery(Best Whisky)
If you are interesting in fishing on lakes or the sea,that's the place to go!

Ireland gives you that many opportunities on fishing on the lakes or even on the rivers and the sea.

We were on the county of Clare (The BURREN)and enjoyed it really ; unforgettable --->Ireland we are coming back.

The Burren reminded me of what I imagine the moon to be like! Its deserted, amazing, mile upon mile of Limestone set as the landscape!

Again the Burren is in Co.Clare and so most will combine a trip to The Burren with visiting the Cliffs Of Moher.

Its a great place to either walk through or drive through....its amazing!

The limestone rocks of the Burren, Co. Clare -- interesting driving through here. There are many small towns around the coast, including the famous Doolin. The Ailwee caves weren't that impressive (but I have been in many caves); I would stop only if you have never been to a cave before!

Located in the N.W. corner of Co. Clare, The Burren Landscape contains dozens of megalithic tombs and Celtic crosses and a Cistyercian Abbey from the 12th century.You can find villages abandon from famine times and green road on which you can walk for miles and never see a car and find rare wild flowers. In black and white, Burren landscape looks about as close to a lunar landscape as you can find on Earth.

Can you imagine a landscape like this in Ireland? it looks (almost) like the moon or some far away planet, but I can assure you it's in Ireland.This is the Burren. It is a limestone region of approximately 300 sq km which lies in the north west corner of Co. Clare, in Ireland. It contains dozens of megalithic tombs and celtic crosses.

Go where bears used to live 'a while ago' :
A farmer found these caves in the 1940s when his dog ran into one of the entrances. He kept quiet for around 30 years (amazing for an irishman!!) before he told anyone about what he found! Since then the cave has been made accessible for the public. You get an amusing guided tour through the cave, see bones of bears that used to live there more than 1000 years ago, stalagmites and stalagtites and everything gets explained very well and light effects are really nice!