The Burren & Cliffs of Moher

Got on a bus to do some touring today. There were several stops along the way to look at castles (that were closed for the season), but the most fascinating venues were the walking tour on a farm in the Burren or the Cliffs of Moher.

The walking tour of the farm was great, our guide, John Connelly, works the farm with his father. But, John is also working in Galway, but one day wants to make his living from the farm. We got to see a day-old calf as this is the season for birth, St. Bridget at work. On the walk he talked about the geology and the history of the area, specifically how glaciers had craved the valleys in the Burren, thus exposing and depositing soil that was rich in nutrients; the layers can be seen in the photos taken at the Cliffs of Moher. He did answer one of my many questions, I asked about the rock walls that are so prolific in the area. Many of the rock walls are not boundaries resulting from clearing the rocks out of the fields, but they are known as "famine walls". During the blight attack on the Irish potato, with so many people suffering and dying due to lack of food, the English would feed individuals that would build these meaningless walls over Irish Mountains (large hills). The English had the Irish do this type of construction since it was not aiding the Irish infrastructure, the English did not want to have the Irish people earn food doing meaningful work that would benefit the a potential rival.
John has also renewed an old Irish tradition of the "Hope Tree", the picture with the cloth tied to it. Before you tie the fabric to the tree branch you ask for a Hopeful thing to be bestowed on the people you are praying for.


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The Burren

The Cliffs of Moher are pretty phenomenal in size and beauty. It was fairly windy and we had snow flurries while we were there, we also had sunshine which was enjoyable. I could see the Plassey shipwreck on Innisheer, can you find it?


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Cliffs of Moher

Today I will take a ferry out to InnishMor for an overnight stay.