106. The Cliffs of Moher. The Burren.

Going further north on the Wild Atlantic Way is County Clare and the iconic Cliffs of Moher. These are sheer vertical drops of 700 feet to the rocky surf below. The green patchwork of stone walls with sheep and cattle suddenly disappears. Like the end of the world. Standing on top I saw what appeared to be white birds floating up. But looking closer they were giant balls of sea foam, the size of my fist, blown up by the wind from the turbulence below. 

It was very windy. The grass covered ground on top looked matted down as if deer had slept there. But no, it was the Wild Atlantic pushing back hard on plant life as well as the rock itself.

These are sandstone cliffs, similar to what I saw in Dingle on a boat to the Blasket Islands. Except at Moher the rock faces are huge. Gigantic. It’s as if the land itself rises up in a swell much like a breaking wave before crashing straight down, vertically down over a distance of two football fields. Migrating Puffin birds use the rock ledges as sanctuary in summer for nesting sites before returning to West Africa or South America.

This is not the only geological phenomenon in Clare County. North of Moher is the Burren. Irish for “barren” land. This area is a massive limestone upheaval of the earth, bearing witness that this was once a shallow sea bed. Glacial action over the limestone carved patterns of lines and eddy like circles into the stone. It was sculpted and scarred by water eroding the surface like fingers dragging through soft tissue. 

In the midst of this “barren” land is a human artifact from over 4000 years ago, referred to as a dolmen. But this is not any ordinary standing stone to mark territory. It's a burial tomb atop a small rounded mound. On top sits large slabs of stone, two to either side with one larger as a capstone on top. An entrance? A burial marker? Human remains have been found there, even children. This predates the New Grange Burial Tomb by almost a thousand years. But it's more primitive and much, much smaller. Unlike New Grange this has no underground passage ways to inner chambers. This was a burial mound. 

The Burren also goes to the sea with glacial deposits of limestone rocks spilling into the Atlantic. The famous British author, J.R.R.Tolkien of "Lord of the Rings" fame would take time from his duties at Oxford University and come to one of his favorite spots here in the Burren coastal region of Clare. Did this inspire his love of the elemental world and forces of nature? Was this his muse to create the characters of The Ring Trilogy?

From primordial seabed to ice age glaciers. From ancient human burial sites to contemporary literature, the Burren is not so barren. It is carved with the signatures of ancient geology, human ritual and creative imagination.