This time I will write about foggy, windy and rainy Ireland, as well as rocky one. Because stones are something characteristic for this country. There are so many of them that they are used to build fences and stone walls arranged near roads. Closely, side by side, forming compact structures. Isn't that dangerous for cars?
One day my friends wanted to show me an even more wild and inaccessible part of Ireland. The Burren, which is on the tentative list of nominees to UNESCO as world heritage sites, is called Boireann in Gaelic - "rocky land." This topography prevents any crops from planting ... agriculture or cattle breeding. The only plants that are able to survive in such conditions are e.g. orchids, ferns, saxiframes and geraniums. It is a mostly deserted place.
Even visiting these areas was not easy. It was windy and rainy. I would leave the car for a few minutes, take pictures, fill myself with this place and go back to the car where my friends and children were waiting for me.
Oliver Cromwell wrote about Burren:
There is a lack of trees to hang a man, there is a lack of water to drown a man, there is a lack of soil to bury a man.
The plateau built of clay shale and limestone, known for its unique karst landscape.
The rains that fall in Ireland often wash and sculpt the surface of limestone blocks. Often, deep crevices are formed there, as well as boulder debris and numerous caves. One of the longest stalactites in Europe is 7.3 m long in the Pol an Ionain cave.
Source: Wikipedia
Poulnabrone (Irish: Poll na Brón) is a neolithic dolmen, prehistoric tomb megalithic structure. One of the most famous archaeological monuments in the Burren. I remember that when I took his picture it was very cold and it was pouring heavy rain. The picture shows traces of raindrops. I wonder how people in prehistoric times imposed such large boulders and who was buried there.
I came back from a trip to the Burren with hair disheveled by the wind, soaked clothes and a memory that will stay with me for life. Walking on these huge flat stones, cut with large cracks and staying in such an unusual place was an extraordinary experience.
