Many gateways to the Burren

County Clare’s Burren is more than a bunch of rocks, Pól Ó Conghaile discovers. Caves, country houses and chocolate factories are just the start of its surprises.

DID you know West Clare was once a tropical sea? The thought is like a line of poetry, washing around my brain as we hit Black Head. Three hundred and fifty million years ago, the Burren’s limestone began to form when sediments and sea creatures floated down to the sea floor. Back then, the Wild Atlantic Way lay 10-degrees south of the equator. It would take millions of years of tectonic shifting, of gouging and poking by ice and rain, to turn it into the shattered landscape unfolding before us today.

I pull in at a lay-by with the Aran Islands visible offshore. With kids aged eight and four, you only ever get 10-15 seconds of Dad-wisdom before the eyes glaze over. I gather my thoughts, searching for the words to describe the specialness of it all. “Try and remember it,” is the best I can do.