The Burren

The Burren is an exception to the rest of Ireland.  A rocky, barren and formidable place, the Burren is a limestone plateau that boasts little of the famous 40 shades of green but does offer some unique plants and lots of very cool rock formations and prehistoric sites.

atop the Burren plateau

limestone formations called clints and grikes caused by the acidity of rainwater over thousands of centuries

limestone striations

good view of the plateau rising behind Ballyvaughan

Poulnabrone portal tomb - 3,000 years older than the pyramids at Giza - and Dee Dee 

Ballyvaughan is nestled between the large mounds of limestone at the edge of Galway Bay

ubiquitous rock walls...they are everywhere in the Burren, dividing up strips of land into chunks that belong to individual farmers