The word “Burren” (pronounced like burn) comes from an Irish word “Boíreann” meaning a rocky place. This is an extremely appropriate name when you consider the lack of soil cover and the extent of exposed Limestone Pavement. However it has been referred to in the past as “fertile rock” due to the mixture of nutrient rich herb and floral species.
The Burren National Park is located in the southeastern corner of the Burren and is approximately 1500 hectares in size. It contains examples of all the major habitats within the Burren: Limestone Pavement, Calcareous Grassland, Hazel scrub, Ash/Hazel Woodland, Turloughs, Lakes, Petrifying Springs, Cliffs and Fen.
We met our guide, Liz, who walked us through the park, explaining what we saw. She was superb. The day was cool and refreshing. Definitely jacket weather. Even Liz wore a jacket. But it wasn't overly cold. It felt like a crisp Gainesville fall day, like late November-ish.
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| On the way to our next thing, we stopped at a cool church ruin and looked around. |
Next, we drove to the Burren Perfumery. Some of us had doubts about a perfumery tour, but it turned out to be really cool. The grounds were gorgeous and they had a tea room, so we had a lovely light lunch before the tour.
The products at the perfumery, perfume, soaps, candles, lotions, etc., were wonderful but pricy. Cristina had her heart set on their newer scents, a rose perfume, until we saw that it was €130 a bottle. We did buy a few things though. Bella splurged on a bottle of perfume for herself (not the €130 one though).
The tour itself was short but informative, with lots of sample strips to sniff throughout the talk. We walked around the gardens and every so often, I'd pull the samples out of my pocket and give them a long deep sniff. Ahhhh!
After the perfumery, we drove to Poulnabrone dolmen, an ancient dolmen (megalithic tomb) located in the Burren. It dates back roughly to between 4,200 and 2,900 BC. It consists of a 3.6 meter long slab supported by two thin slabs placed vertically.
We drove into the little town of Doolin and stopped at a store called Irish Crafts. I had purchased a necklace from them for Cristina's birthday online and they were holding it for us. We picked it up and looked around the shop. They had some bottles of fennel soda and nettle soda for free, so we grabbed some.
We continued a little deeper into Doolin and stopped for ice cream. Doolin is very touristy, with gift shops and B&B's all over. We were definitely not the only Americans walking around there.
The lady at Irish Crafts had told us where the nearest grocery stores were, so we headed to a town called Ennistimon and found a huge Irish supermarket called SuperValu. We stocked up on stuff for dinner as well as breakfast stuff and picnic supplies for the next day. Back at the Airbnb, I cooked a dinner of chicken korma, pasta, green peas, and salad. Pub food is great, but a home-cooked meal was very nice. The airbnb has a smart speaker in the kitchen, so every time we were in there cooking or eating, we'd tell it to play music. The joke became that no matter what kind of music we requested (trad music, breakfast music, cooking music, etc.) Google would always eventually play Ed Sheeran. Google must have a vested interest in promoting Ed Sheeran!
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| I made this shirt as a joke. It's from a character in an Irish sitcom called Father Ted. The plan was to surprise Steve with it, but since he couldn't make the trip, I sent him this photo instead. He loved it. |
As we ate dinner, someone pointed out that it was close to 10 pm. Our sense of time was definitely off from jet lag but also from the longer daylight hours here. By the time we showered and got to bed, it was close to midnight. I had a harder time falling asleep than the previous night.
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