Lets Burren These Cliffs

By the time the weekend rolled around I felt like we hadn’t done much. We’d gone to Bunratty, city centre, and the Milk Market on Saturday. Which means we really hadn’t left the area around my school. So I thought it’d be fun to take my mum to the Cliffs of Moher. It was super expensive to take Bus Errian plus entrance fee. So I looked for tours that went there and I found a great one with a small tour group called Barrett Tours.

Now earier in the semester if you remember I’d gone on another tour to the Cliffs and I’d thought that was fun. Now let me tell you that pales in comparison with Barrett. We went all through the Burren and saw al kinds of cool forts and stone things.

First stop was Leamenagh Castle. It was originally just a tower built in 1480, it’s the tower connected to the castle on the right in my picture. The name Leamenagh comes from the Gaelic "léim an éich" which means "the horse's leap". The manor house was erected in 1648 by Conor O'Brien and his wife, Máire ní Mahon.

After Leamenagh we were off to Caherconnell Stone Fort. Now Caherconnell is a typical ring fort. It would have been inhabited by the land owning family and in times of danger or need the peasants from the surrounding area would have come inside and been kept safe by the walls. Historians say that ring forts such as this were been inhabited from 400-1200A.D. Although it appears that Caherconnell was used up until the late medieval period because a historian found that the enterence to the gate was rebuilt in the 15th or 16th century.

^This is what it would have looked like^

From Caherconnell we left to Poulnabrone Tomb, which is a famous Dolmen in the Burren. Poll na mBrón in Gaelic meaning "hole of sorrows". The Tomb is from the Neolithic and dated between 4200 BC to 2900 BC. Here’s the low down on it. The capstone is 12 feet long and the portal stones (the stones holding up the capstone) are 6 feet high. Accodring to Wikipedia “A crack was discovered in the eastern portal stone in 1985. Following the resulting collapse, the dolmen was dismantled, and the cracked stone was replaced. Excavations during this time found that between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children were buried under the monument. Personal items buried with the dead included a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery. In the Bronze Age, around 1700BC, a newborn baby was buried in the portico, just outside the entrance. With its dominating presence on the limestone landscape of the Burren, the tomb was likely a centre for ceremony and ritual until well into the Celtic period or it may have served as a territorial marker in the Neolithic landscape” That’s pretty darn epic if you ask me.

We did lots of driving and picture taking after Poulnabrone. We drove through Ballyvaughen and along Galway Bay…

Photo Stop!!

Around Black Head…

To more Galway Bay and The Aran Islands were visable.

^Aran Islands in the bay^

Then it was through Ballyryan and on to Doolin for lunch. After that we took the back way into the Cliffs. Since we were on a small bus we would go up the super steep hill and make a stop at this tower built by the O’Brians. I forget the name…

Then it was off to the Cliffs. I’ll save you from rambling on as I already did a post on the Cliffs already. So check that out for facts. And enjoy more pictures here!!
 

Cheers,