The Burren is
a thick layer of limestone covering a few hundred square kilometres,
of West Clare, and the Aran Islands. It is very different from the rest
of Ireland. An eternity of rain has eroded the stone into fantastical
shapes of potholes, flakes and rabbit warren interlaced crevasses.
One look out across the Burren and you think "broken ankles".
| Gleninsheen is
a area of the Burren rich in ancient sites, six kilometres South from the
coast at Ballyvaughan. See Audrey in blue and red, by a well, inside a
circle of upright stones. Holy wells are not a thing from the past.
Not all wells are "Christianized", nor sign posted, nor with a road anyways
near. They remain part of local healing practices and pilgrimages,
as they have been for thousands of years. |
Poll Insheen Wells |
People leave coins, statuettes, car keys...
See the small china Madonna is broken? In a picture taken years ago, it
was whole. I suspect only the wild weather disturbs this place.
 |
This wedge tomb is in the next field, about a kilometre away.
The brush in the background is Hazel. It
grows everywhere. After the ice age, the hazel grew everywhere, then
the area became forested, and now that the trees have been taken, the hazel
has returned.
|
A boy hunting rabbits in 1932 found this
fabulous gold collar, the Gleninsheen
Gorget, in a crevasse close to this tomb.
It is now in the National Museum. This picture from a guidebook
That boy, Paddy Nolan, grew up to own this
farm and became famous for protecting its historic treasures. He died recently
and a new plaque honouring him joins the monuments in his fields. |
The next stop Poulnabrone, just three kilometres further up the valley 
|