Emerald Heart: A Guide to Ireland's Six National Parks

The Burren, County Clare
The Burren is a park within a park, part of the Unesco Global Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark. But this lunar landscape on the Irish Atlantic coast is also a living geological and cultural museum. The park's most prominent landmark is Mullaghmore, a barren hill carved by time that attracts visitors looking for a spiritual reboot. Its pewter and pearl shades are whipped with smooth ringed contours that never fail to reflect the mood of the day. In the sun, it is almost brilliant; as the sun sets over Loch Gealain and ricochets off its still, crystalline surface, it ablazes in hues of copper and coral.
Mullaghmore attracts hikers experienced, but other trails in this austere landscape, shaped millions of years earlier, are just as rewarding. The mild climate allows flora, from hardy gorse and hazelnut to rare species such as eyebright, bloody cranesbill and wild orchids - typical flora of various regions from the Mediterranean to the Alps - to thrive here , largely in the crevices of the vast limestone pavements.
The entrance to the park is through the 16th century Kilnaboy Church, which houses a rare Sheela -na-Gig, an obscene stone figure that stands like a sulky gargoyle above the entrance to the southern wall of the ruin. Beyond the main park path is the more comical setting of the house from the Channel 4 series Father Ted. spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-10khgmf">
The ancient surface of the geopark is marked by traces of millennia of human effort. The 5,000-year-old Poulnabrone Dolmen Portal Tomb is one of Ireland's most iconic landmarks and further north, beyond a fascinating network of caves and turloughs (seasonal lakes), is finds the ruin of 13th century Corcomroe Abbey known as Saint Mary of the Fertile Rock.
The monks who cultivated this land discovered that, despite its rocky surface, they could produce abundant vegetables, herbs, and beans with unique flavors from the soil that nurtured it. Their legacy lives on in the Burren Slow Food movement, a food trail that includes a farm visit to St Tola Farmhouse for fresh goat cheese, local fish at the Burren Smokehouse and cornet dairy gelato at Linnalla, the ice cream parlour. further west in Europe. .

Lifestyle Jul 23, 2022 0 80 Add to Reading List

Emerald Heart: A Guide to Ireland's Six National Parks

The Burren, County Clare

The Burren is a park within a park, part of the Unesco Global Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark. But this lunar landscape on the Irish Atlantic coast is also a living geological and cultural museum. The park's most prominent landmark is Mullaghmore, a barren hill carved by time that attracts visitors looking for a spiritual reboot. Its pewter and pearl shades are whipped with smooth ringed contours that never fail to reflect the mood of the day. In the sun, it is almost brilliant; as the sun sets over Loch Gealain and ricochets off its still, crystalline surface, it ablazes in hues of copper and coral.

Mullaghmore attracts hikers experienced, but other trails in this austere landscape, shaped millions of years earlier, are just as rewarding. The mild climate allows flora, from hardy gorse and hazelnut to rare species such as eyebright, bloody cranesbill and wild orchids - typical flora of various regions from the Mediterranean to the Alps - to thrive here , largely in the crevices of the vast limestone pavements.

The entrance to the park is through the 16th century Kilnaboy Church, which houses a rare Sheela -na-Gig, an obscene stone figure that stands like a sulky gargoyle above the entrance to the southern wall of the ruin. Beyond the main park path is the more comical setting of the house from the Channel 4 series Father Ted. spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-10khgmf"> Polnabrone Dolmen is about 5,000 years old.

The ancient surface of the geopark is marked by traces of millennia of human effort. The 5,000-year-old Poulnabrone Dolmen Portal Tomb is one of Ireland's most iconic landmarks and further north, beyond a fascinating network of caves and turloughs (seasonal lakes), is finds the ruin of 13th century Corcomroe Abbey known as Saint Mary of the Fertile Rock.

The monks who cultivated this land discovered that, despite its rocky surface, they could produce abundant vegetables, herbs, and beans with unique flavors from the soil that nurtured it. Their legacy lives on in the Burren Slow Food movement, a food trail that includes a farm visit to St Tola Farmhouse for fresh goat cheese, local fish at the Burren Smokehouse and cornet dairy gelato at Linnalla, the ice cream parlour. further west in Europe. .