Sunday, July 31, 2011

Great trips in Co.Clare

By Deirdre Barr


If you're travelling to Ireland, why don't you have a peek and see how the weather's acting here in the West. Book a hotel in Clare and also visit the nearby sights like the Burren. The Burren is situated south of Galway in County Clare, Ireland. The name Burren is from the Irish - bhoireann meaning a stony spot. Its formation has lain untainted since the ice-age and is composed of karstic limestone, the largest section of such in Western Europe.

It is a place of surprise and delight to botanists, archaeologists and ecologists as well and occupies a place of around 300 sq. kms. The region itself is really bleak in appearance with glacial soil loss in the maximum. However it has sufficient soil to develop a multitude of the most unusual and most rarified of plants, several of them strange bed fellows.

An excellent collection of alpines as well as Mediterranean species grow with each other within this limestone region with, strangely, a number of them being lime-hating vegetation. The Burren is bordered towards the west by the Atlantic and Galway Bay and is tucked in the north-west corner of Clare.

This region has many of the best historical megalithic tombs in Ireland, if not in Western Europe. There are relics of human habitation dating back to almost 6000 years and one of the most famous is the vortal tomb, or portal dolman, at Poulnabrone. In this area alone there are far more than 60 wedge tombs as well as densest concentration in Ireland.

Nestling unobtrusively within the Burren, and just 4 miles from Ballyvaughan, are the Aillwee Caves. They were discovered in the 1940's by a local farmer while out scrambling sheep. His dog had disappeared and ended up being found inside the cavern entrance that must have been covered for thousands of years. Remains of brown bears and indentations from the bear pits were discovered a little way from the entrance. Bears happen to be extinct in Ireland for centuries so this find brought on some exhilaration.




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