The Burren

The Burren, literally the rocky place, is a 10 square mile limestone plateau, a sight so barren that a disappointed Cromwellian surveyor of the 1650's described it as a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor a tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury him.  But he was not much of a botanist because the Burren is a unique ecosystem that has managed to survive and adapt since the last Ice Age.  The first human inhabitants of the Burren came about 6,000 years ago and began cutting down trees, and are partially responsible for the stark landscape we see today.

Poulnabrone Dolmen a portal tomb build 4,000 years ago as a grave chamber in a cairn of stacked stones. The wildflowers around the Dolmen were just beautiful and very similar to the wildflowers and plants that grown on the North Slope of Alaska.

The day was a bit cooler than the last four days which actually was a relief to us.  It was cloudy but did not rain on us at all, there were just a few drops that fell later in the day but nothing that interfered with our day of sightseeing.