The Burren

Driving through the Burren region of North County Clare is spectacular!

Stretching across northern Clare, the rocky, windswept Burren region is a unique striated lunar-like landscape of barren grey limestone that was shaped beneath ancient seas, then forced high and dry by a great geological cataclysm. It covers 250 sq km of exposed limestone, and 560 sq km in total.

(Lonely Planet)

Wild flowers in the spring give the Burren brilliant color against its stark beauty. (Lonely Planet)

Unfortunately, it's July so we missed the wildflower season.

There are homes dotted around the landscape. 

Villages throughout the region include the music hub of Doolin on the west coast, Kilfenora inland and charming Ballyvaughan in the north, on the shores of Galway Bay. (Lonely Planet)

South of Ballyvaughan, a series of severe bends twists up Corkscrew Hill (180m). Built as part of a Great Famine relief scheme in the 1840s, the road leads to prehistoric and Iron Age sites including Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb, Poulnabrone Dolmen and Caherconnell Fort. (Lonely Planet)