It’s just that you get this idea stuck in your head. The Burren is this incredible wild open space -rugged, raw, empty and beautiful. We keyed in Burren Visitor Centre oblivious to the fact that there are quite a few Burren Visitor Centres. The one we arrived at was closed for lunch. BUT a delightful woman appeared and was so ardently passionate about the beauty and wonder of the Burren and insisted we should visit, giving us clear and detailed instructions of how to get there. We had to go.

Minutes later we arrived. It was a dead end. There were a handful of cars. There were signs. We agreed to do a short half hour walk. It took us into a moss-filled, small-treed, ground fern covered  ‘forest’. This was not what we were expecting.  Still, it was very beautiful. We explored.

Mystified, we continued to the Cliffs of Moher. Yes. This was what we expected. Almost. Who expects cavalcades of tourist buses? Souvenir shops selling everything Irish set discretely into the mountain side? Car parks kilometres away from where you need to go? Rain? Cold? Wind? Despite all that…it was wonderful and worth the effort.

As we headed towards Galway we took the coastal route and saw more of what we understood was the Burren. It was almost impossible to capture this wild and rugged landscape so I have dropped in a couple from the internet. It is really spectacular.

We negotiated our way into the city and headed for the hotel, our room, then the bar. We have become a little partial to a Guinness. We didn’t even bother investigating the loal area. We ate in and organised breakfast for the next morning as well. It was all too easy.