The Burren, County Clare, Ireland. May 2010

[Paddy Tobin]

Glad you liked them, Gail. And, certainly, this area is very worth a visit. I was talking to a friend in Northern Ireland some weeks back and he told me the local branch of the Alpine Garden Society had hoped to visit the Burren but were put off by the cost and I found this such a terrible pity though the way our economy has developed and prices had become outlandish. We booked a special offer from a hotel in the south of County Clare, a four star hotel, two nights B&B, one evening meal at a reasonable price and the guided walking outings were, in effect, free on top of this. We had an introductory talk on Friday evening and were bussed from the hotel to the walking location and back to the hotel afterwards on Saturday and Sunday with packed lunch provided by the hotel. It was very well organised and very enjoyable and we certainly will be returning.

Carlo, this was not specifically a "walking" group as such, more a strolling group and so it was relatively easy to keep up with them. The age profile also meant the the pace was not too fast, quite slow in fact. Mary, who likes to walk quickly found it irritatingly slow at first but came to take her ease and enjoy her surroundings along the way.

Paddy

[Lvandelft]

Great location. Very interesting series of pictures,Paddy. Hard to believe all these plants are growing just near the see shore.
This is already longer on our "want to see" list. Hopefully we ever can visit this beautyful place once?Just 15 km. would be a bit to long walking for me  , but maybe there are some shorter routes too?
Thanks very much for taking us on your walk!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Luit,

There are many shorter walks which would still give you an excellent insight into the area and allow you access an excellent range of flowers.

Our guide for the weekend has written a guidebook which seemed to me to be very good. Have a look at this website: http://heartofburrenwalks.com/

This is "The Burren & The Aran Islands - A Walking Guide" by Tony Kirby and is published The Collins Press in Cork, Ireland. See www.collinspress.ie

You can get it, to the best of my knowledge, through www.heartofburrenwalks.com website and certainly from The Collins Press, where I got mine.

It describes 15 walks, 11  on The Burren and 4 on the Aran Islands. Having read it and road tested it on The Burren I can recommend it highly. Short, succinct, clear directions, good maps. Fits in the pocket and easy to manage in the field.

Likewise, "Wild Plants of The Burren and the Aran Islands" by Charles Nelson is worth having. Same publishers.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

Did you visit Carl Wright? His garden is supposed to be brilliant

[angie]

Thanks Paddy I really enjoyed the pictures. I really want to come back to Ireland but this time I really would like to spend more time in the country side instead of the cities. I love how friendly you Irish are. When we were over we tried to find Helen Dillon's garden and when we stopped and asked a passerby if they new the way it was amazing the time and effort they took to help us out it was unbelievable. Not like here
Angie

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks so much Paddy for this wonderful journey to the Burren and an intimate look at not only the plants but the roads, walls and rock formations which give it it special character. Like Carlo, it is somewhere I've always wanted to visit.

[Paddy Tobin]

Angie,
I hope you managed to get to Helen Dillon's garden. It has been a favourite garden of mine for many, many years and I have been a regular visitor over the years. Helen is a wonderful person, generous with her time and her plants. My garden grows many plants whose labels have a rider, "ex H.D." It is certainly a garden worth seeking out if you visit again.

Lesley,
Glad you enjoyed my visit to the Burren. I have always loved the mountain walks reported from New Zealand and find it satisfying that I have returned the compliment, at least in a small way, to you in N.Z.

Re the Burren: I am going to paraphrase some comments from Dr. E. Charles Nelson little handbook on the "Wild Plants of The Burren and the Aran Islands" which I found very helpful in identifying most of the plants seen last weekend.

Charles states: More than 700 different species of flowering plants, conifers and ferns have been recorded here, i.e. about three quarters of Ireland's native flora grow here. None of the species are unique to The Burren but many grow here in greater abundance than elsewhere in Ireland or Britain.  The natural mix of wild plants in The Burren is astonishing and it is the principal reason for the area's botanical fame. Here one will find plants from the Arctic tundra, the Pyrennes, the Alps and the Mediterranean and these growing cheek by jowl and in big numbers. Also, rather contradictorily, you will find plants which acidic soil conditions growing robustly in a limestone landscape.

From personal observation, it was also surprising to find woodland plants growing in on open hilltops; amazingly lush growth in plants apparently growing on bare rock and simply amazing numbers of spring gentians, mountain avens and orchids. Unfortunately, as my visit was early in the season, I  only saw one of the eighteen orchids recorded in the area. Obviously, I need to visit again and again.

An odd farming practice in The Burren is that, in contrast with other hill and mountain areas, cattle are put on the hills to graze for the winter and not the summer as is the common practice elsewhere. The hills on The Burren are actually warmer than the lowlands in the winter and the grazing is amazingly rich and nutritious for the cattle. Lately, some Scottish cattle are being trialled on the hills as they are deemed most suitable for this practice. Their breed name escapes  me at present but they are very distinct: black and while, like a panda bear or an American police car, a small tough animal.

Many thanks to Maggi who posted the lists of names on all the postings above. I was going to come back and do this  myself but she was doing it as fast as I posted. Obviously, a slow night in the Young household!

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Did you visit Carl Wright? His garden is supposed to be brilliant

Mark, there is an excellent article in the May issue of "The Irish Garden" which you might enjoy, good text, lots of photographs.

It is a three hectare garden being carved out of the hazel brush and on top of limestone paving; a challenging site with great natural aspects.

Also, Carl has a strong interest in snowdrops!

Paddy

[mark smyth]

I've searched everywhere up here for that issue and can't find it. Maybe one day it will be on their web site

[Paddy Tobin]

It's the latest issue, Mark. Surprising that it is not available.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Rain is forecast for mid-afternoon here so I will make a start on posting photographs from Day 2 of our walk and will come back with more this evening.

On Day 1,  Saturday we started in Rathborney valley, just south west of Ballyvaughan before climbing pretty quick along the eastern flank of Cappanawalla. We headed west and then got a view of Galway Bay Connemara etc. We then crossed a saddle to get onto Gleninagh mountain before eventually getting onto the Green Road which brought us around Black Head and on towards Fanore where we were met by the bus. This is a part of the walk known as the Black Head Loop which is described at http://www.shannonregiontrails.ie/FindaTrail/Walking/LoopWalks/TrailName,8611,en.html
Discovery Series OSI 51
 
On Sunday we walked in the Burren National Park at Kilnaboy. We passed the turlough Lough Gealáin on our way up Mullaghmore. We headed up by the way marked trail in a north east direction and descended it by walking around its western flank.
Discovery Series OSI 51 and 52.

Note: A "turlough" is a seasonal lake, filling when rainfall is  heavy and draining away in spring/summer. It was amusing to see a completely dry stream bed on the Saturday walk. At this time of year it is not yet very dry here in Ireland. The turlough we visited on Sunday, Lough Gealáin, does not dry out completely. From later photographs, taken from the vantage point of the hill, you will see from the varying water colour that there are varying depths to the lake and the deeper parts remain in summer. By the way, there is only one completely above-ground river in The Burren. All others disappear underground at some stage, perhaps reappearing elsewhere. The Burren also has some very interesting cave systems - not  my area of interest.

1. 2. 3.  View to turlough
4. Fraxinus excelsior, common ash growing in a scailp - strong trunk but parts above ground regularly cut back, by goats, I think.
5. Fraxinus excelsior, common ash growing in a scailp
6. Teucrium scorodonia, Wood Sage. Odd to find a woodland plant growing in limestone pavement but there is great shelter and excellent soil in the scailps.

[Paddy Tobin]

7. 8. Rhamnus cathartica. Purging Buckthorn
9. Polygala vulgaris. Common Milkwort
10. Potentilla fruticosa. Shrubby Cinquefoil
11. Rubus saxatalis. Stone Bramble
12. Potentilla fruticosa. Shrubby Cinquefoil

You will see from the second photograph of the Rhamnus cathartica that it is quite an old plant. However, I imagine, it has been nibbled by the feral goats which live in this area.

The Polygala is a beautiful colour, good enough to rival gentian but it is a very small plant and does not catch the eye to the same degree.

Potentilla fruticosa is a commonly grown garden shrub. Here is inhabits that area which is flooded in winter, when the turlough is at its biggest, and dry in spring/summer when the waters of the turlough retreats. We found only one flowers on these potentillas.

Rubus saxatalis is probably more interesting in autumn when it has its lovely red berries but the foliage is good and its growth habit in the scailp interesting.

[Paddy Tobin]

13. 14. Juniperus communis. Juniper
15. Viola persicifolia. Turlough Violet - known as Fen Violet in England
16. Limestone landscape with boulder - some of these boulders were quite big.
17. Geranium sanguineum. Bloody Cranesbill. One of the special flowers of The Burren, just beginning to flower when we visited.
18. Orchis mascula. Early Purple Orchid. This group seems to have made its home on the little hummock.

The junipers generally form dense prostrate mats on The Burren and it is only in a few places that upright plants occur. Apologies that the plant is not very clear in the photograph. It was growing in quite tall grass and difficult to distinguish in the photograph. Perhaps, photograph 14 will show it a little more clearly. This was quite a large shrub spreading to over two metres.

In this area we moved quickly from limestone pavement, to seasonally flooded land, to hazel shrub and onto the hills quite quickly, an interesting walk.

[Lvandelft]

Luit,

There are many shorter walks which would still give you an excellent insight into the area and allow you access an excellent range of flowers.

Our guide for the weekend has written a guidebook which seemed to me to be very good. Have a look at this website: http://heartofburrenwalks.com/

This is "The Burren & The Aran Islands - A Walking Guide" by Tony Kirby and is published The Collins Press in Cork, Ireland. See www.collinspress.ie

You can get it, to the best of my knowledge, through www.heartofburrenwalks.com website and certainly from The Collins Press, where I got mine.

It describes 15 walks, 11  on The Burren and 4 on the Aran Islands. Having read it and road tested it on The Burren I can recommend it highly. Short, succinct, clear directions, good maps. Fits in the pocket and easy to manage in the field.

Likewise, "Wild Plants of The Burren and the Aran Islands" by Charles Nelson is worth having. Same publishers.

Paddy

Thanks Paddy, whenever we visit Ireland, I will ask you as a guide 
For a start will study the given links first!

[Paddy Tobin]

19. Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Bluebell
20. Orchis mascula. Early Purple Orchid
21. Mycelis muralis. Wall Lettuce
22. View of turlough
23. Heading uphill
24. A famous house - the Parochial house in "Father Ted"

Bluebells are not quite what you expect on limestone pavement but The Burren has various growing environments literally side-by-side. The bluebells were growing at the side of the Hazel scrub.

Early Purple Orchid - yes, they were everywhere but still beautiful!

The Wall Lettuce was hardly a thing of great beauty but was interesting nonetheless. It was first recorded in The Burren in the 1930s but is commonplace throughout Ireland as a garden weed, frequently growing on wall, hence the name.

Good view of the turlough here, nice colour range on the water showing the varying depths.

Heading uphill - my regular view of the group as they walked ahead and I stopped for a photograph and then had to sprint to catch up. The guide was very patient and catered for all levels of fitness and interest.

Some may not have seen the television programme, "Father Ted". For those who have, this is the "Parochial House" where much of the filming took place.

Paddy