The Burren

"A limestone plateau full of gentians, orchids, and a stone-age tomb in every other field — walked quietly, on foot."

The Burren is a 250-square-kilometre plateau of bare limestone pavement in the west of Clare. Cromwell's surveyor famously complained that it had neither tree enough to hang a man, water to drown him, nor soil to bury him — which is both true and very much the point.

The walking is gentle and the botany is extraordinary. Arctic, Alpine, and Mediterranean flowers grow side by side in the sheltered cracks (grikes) between the slabs (clints). Our lead here, Aoife Ní Chonchúir, is a trained botanist.

We base in Ballyvaughan and walk easy loops each day, with at least one evening devoted to the trad session at Gus O'Connor's in Doolin.