Clints and Grikes

Today was our last day of driving in the Republic of Ireland before parting with our hire car. We managed just under 1200km on one tank of Diesel. That is 1200km of irish splendour in 6 days. We left Ennis this morning and headed through the Burren, passing many ruins along the way.

The landscape of the Burren is made up of silvery limestone karst pavements called clints.  Between the seams of rock lie narrow fissures called grikes. Small plants and wild flowers can be found growing in some of the grikes.

The Burren's coastline is made up of rocky foreshores and inland the hilly terrain is dotted with ancient burial chambers and medieval ruins. Poulnabrone Dolmen also referred to as the Portal Tomb (see picture below) stands amid acres of rocky pavements, the capstone is said to weigh 5 tonnes. 

With just a couple of hours left in the day and a few litres of fuel in the tank we made our way onto the Connemara Peninsula where the scenery changed yet again. Looking at the area on a map the coast line looks like filigree work as the area is a kaleidoscope of black lakes amongst grey rocky outcrops with pewter tinged quartzite peaks of the Twelve Bens mountain range in the background.

We have seen miles and miles of dry stone walls, farmers using the natural resource readily available with no sign of it running out any time soon.

Having arrived in Galway for tonight's stay we stumbled upon 'Circle of Life' garden on our walk along the promenade on our way to dinner. The garden is dedicated to organ donors and is sponsored by many Irish businesses and tourist attractions. Nice.

Off to Belfast tomorrow via Dublin, travelling on two trains.