Heart of Burren Walks

14/03/2022

* A guided Burren hill walk for the long St Patrick holiday.
* Friday March 18th 10.00 a.m.
* In a remote and stunning part of the Burren National Park.
* Duration 4.5 hours. Cost €40 per person.
* Numbers limited. Booking in advance essential.
* More information/booking at www.heartofburrenwalks.com/schedule-2

01/06/2021

A rare event in the Irish countryside - a live virtual Burren tour takes place this Friday June 4th at 16.00 B.S.T. The tour coincides with the great annual natural history event, the Burren in Bloom! Arctic/alpine/Mediterranean plants. Other highlights include limestone pavement, dry stone walls, stunning views...and incisive commentaries. The tour is led by Tony Kirby of Heart of Burren Walks and it will be transmitted via Zoom
The event lasts one hour and will include time for Q and A. Cost is €15 and booking can be made at the following page https://www.heartofburrenwalks.com/live-virtual-walks

31/05/2021

Next live Burren tour to coincide with the remarkable Burren in Bloom takes place this Friday June 4th at 16.00 B.S.T.
Thanks to all for the fantastic reaction to the tour last Friday.
Tour cost €15. Booking/info for Friday's tour at www.heartofburrenwalks.com/live-virtul/tourTour

24/05/2021

The first ever live virtual Burren tour takes place this Friday May 28th at 16.00 B.S.T. The tour coincides with the great annual natural history event, the Burren in bloom. Other highlights include limestone pavement, dry stone walls, stunning views...and incisive commentaries. The tour is led by Tony Kirby of Heart of Burren Walks and it will be transmitted via Zoom
The event lasts one hour and there will include time for Q and A. Cost is €15 and booking can be made at the following page https://www.heartofburrenwalks.com/live-virtual-walks

24/05/2021

The remnants of a ring fort on the slopes of Cappanawalla in the north west of the Burren. The forts were the fortified farmsteads of kings and their kin in Early Christian times (and maybe even some pre-Christian times) in Ireland - a Gaelic élite whose economic and political power derived from monopoly of farmlands. There are about 450 ring forts in the Burren.

17/03/2021

There's yer man - St Patrick at Toberpatrick, Rossalia, Abbey, Co Clare. The holy well is in the north west of the Burren - on the slopes of Abbey Hill. The figurine is at head height just before one steps down in to the well. Patrick has stunning views of the Burren, Galway Bay and Connemara.

The metal plate below the figurine reads “In memory of Matthew Comeshill who died in Ireland August 13th 1958”. The wording is hand-engraved in copperplate script.

The photos are courtesy of Nick Geh.
Lá fhéile Pádraig sona duit. Happy St Patrick's Day!

23/02/2021

A lone hawthorn on the plateau of Termon hill on the Carran looped waymarked walk. The loop is in in the townland of Termon near the village of Carran in County Clare. The photo was take on a snowy Sunday.

08/02/2021

https://youtu.be/OsmBkCNWEx4

http://www.heartofburrenwalks.comTony is a critically acclaimed walking tour guide in one of the most distinctive landscapes in Europe, The Burren, in west I...

28/01/2021

A STATEMENT IN STONE
Tobercornan/Pinnacle Well, Gleninagh, County Clare.

‘Tobar Chornáin, near Black Head.
Perhaps the most decorative of the many wells, holy or otherwise, which dot the Burren’.
Peadar O’Dowd.

Tobercornan was a natural spring before it was ‘welled’.
One presumes it was welled when it was canopied.

That happened circa 1860 and so thereafter Gleninagh North had two canopied wells.
The other well is Tobernacrohaneeve, Tobar Na Chroíche Naoimh, only one km away.
Is Gleninagh North the only townland in all of County Clare with, not one, but two canopied wells?

Officially known as Tobercornan, Tobar Chornáin. Now commonly known as the Pinnacle Well.
Discounted by some as not being holy historically though Cooke did state in the 1840s that ‘The neighbouring peasantry call it a Blessed Well.’

The Tobercornan well house was probably commissioned by the land lord, Bagot Blood. Extravagant and all as the design is, it can hardly be defined as a folly as it did serve a function, i.e., shelter for the water users.

Was the project an elite extravagance in order to compete with the nearby local heart land of ‘indigenous spirituality’, Tobernacrohaneeve?
Or alternatively was the canopy designed as a facsimile in miniature of St John’s R.C. church in nearby Ballyvaughan - built in the same period and in the same Gothic revival style?

The whitethorn tree has been ‘culturally modified’, mainly with ribbons. Not always so. The tree was entirely undecorated in a 1980 photo by Peadar O’Dowd.

There are nine townlands in the parish of Gleninagh. The parish was entirely owned by two individuals in the mid-1800s. Whilst more than 90% of the housing stock was fourth classification, ‘miserable hovels’, around about that time*, a small body of water was being housed in a most elegant way.
One could argue that ‘The Pinnacle’ is, amongst other things, a monument to profound inegalitarianism.

Fanagí slán. Stay safe.

*90.4% of the housing stock in the parish of Gleninagh was classified as fourth classification according to the 1841 census.

25/01/2021

WHEN THE MOON SHINES BY DAY

The volcanic rock of the moon reflects sun light on a sabbath in January in Killinaboy.
There is also crazy pavement, young hazel and stony hills..............but "when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie...."

20/01/2021

One from the dusty archives - from about 55 weeks ago. The turning of the year in the Kingdom of Kerry. The Old Kenmare Road, linking Kenmare and Killarney, was eventually by-passed in the 1820s. Lord Lansdowne cleared the inhabitants subsequently to transform the area in to a deer park.

The former 'road' is now a 16 km meander along a track through glens and mountain passes in the uplands of Killarney National Park.

Nearing Killarney and looking back at gorse in the foreground. Described by Zoe Devlin, wild flower expert, as '...our most remarkable native shrub. Throughout the year, the rich yellow peaflowers seem to light up the Irish landscape'.

In the background - the Mac Gillycuddy Reeks - home to 10 of Ireland's 13 Scottish furths (peaks over 914.4m).........and home also to the highest point on the island of Ireland, Corrán Tuathail, Tuathal's Sickle, at 1,038m.

The Old Kenmare Road is one of Ireland's most scenic trails.
It is memories that I am stealing.

Slán tamall.