It's been a busy few weeks: as well as getting our 2013 brochure ready and sent to the printers, we've also been sorting out our next three trips (to Norfolk next week, Cyprus in November and Tasmania in January) and finalising the details to send out for our 2013 holidays. One of which, finished today, is our return to the Burren next May.
As a reminder of all things 'Burren', here's a report from last year's trip, by Charlie Moores, who will again be leading our 2013 holiday with Charlie Rugeroni...
"I'm just back from a fantastic six day trip to the Burren in western Ireland with
Wildlife Travel. Though I knew a little about the Burren before I began hitting the guide books and the internet - particularly in connection with its high number of orchid species and the
Burren Green moth
Calamia tridens which in the British Isles is found only in the Burren - nothing prepared me properly for the dramatic hills, the palette of colours, and the wide range of quality habitats found there.
Based in the small town of Lisdoonvarna throughout our stay, we were right in the heart of the Burren itself. Within a fairly small area - and all within easy reach of Lisdoonvarna - lies the stunning beauty of the limestone pavements with their (in European terms) unique assemblage of plants crowded into the grikes (the cracks between the slabs of limestone); turloughs (the seasonal 'lakes' that mostly drain away in summer); sand dunes, pastures, meadows, and hazel woodland; the towering sea cliffs of Moher with their colonies of auks; and the beautiful Aran Islands (Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer) which lie just off the coast in the mouth of Galway Bay.
Looking from the top of Corkscrew Hill towards Galway Bay
A typical road in the countryside
Over five days we found around 200 species of vascular plants (from orchids to ferns and the striking
Bloody Cranesbill and
Spring Gentian), some sixty species of birds (including
Black Guillemot, Peregrine, Cuckoo, and
Dipper), eight
Odonata (including five damselfies and my first ever
Hairy Dragonfly), and a wide range of other invertebrates from
Transparent Burnet and
Pyrausta sanguinalis to
Small Blue, Water Scorpion, Bog Hoverfly, the longhorn beetle
Strangalia/Leptura quadrifasciata, and the sawfly
Tenthredo temulosa. Never far from the coast, the Burren is named from the Gaelic for a 'rocky place' and at first sight appears a rather harsh and barren landscape. Perhaps in the winter it is indeed a bleak location (when the rain rolled in on the last day of our trip it certainly took on a more monochrome and wild character compared with when the sun was out and the land is speckled with vibrant colour) but, looking closer, this was one of the most memorable and beautiful landscapes I've ever seen! I'd go back in a shot given the chance (and, boy, do I hope I get the chance...). On top of that, of course, are castles, dolmens, churches and holy crosses - and (genuinely) some of the friendliest people I've ever met (Dermot Dooley who ran the B&B we stayed at, Caherleigh House, is everything you'd want from a 'landlord' and more).
Limestone pavement at Poll Salloch
Below Slieve Carran
The day before we arrived in the Burren, Ireland experienced what many weather reporters were describing as 'a month's rain in just two days'. Blown in by very powerful winds, the rain could have ruined the trip but - and while I have no doubt it was purely good fortune - almost miraculously it stopped the morning we woke up and only started again on our final afternoon. So much water falling did however mean that the many turloughs in the area - lakes that would normally fill up in the winter and disappear over the summer as they drain away through swallow holes and underground streams formed by the dissolution of carbonates from the underlying rocks - remained very high. Some of the special 'turlough-side' flora we were looking for was under water therefore, but the lakes are a very attractive feature nonetheless.
Lough Bunny, a turlough One habitat I hadn't realised was so close and so important was sea cliffs. The sheer (and guano spattered)
Cliffs of Moher are apparently one of Ireland's top visitor attractions (shame on me for not knowing that before I began to research the trip!) and are a designated UNESCO Geo Park. They rise over 200m high at their highest point and their ledges are home to one of the major colonies of cliff nesting seabirds in Ireland (boat trips from Doolin Harbour regularly sail right alongside the cliffs and offer spectacular views of the birds). Their importance is underlined by their designation as a Special Protection Area for Birds under the EU Birds Directive in 1986 and as a Refuge for Fauna in 1988. Crowded with
auks, Kittiwakes, and
Fulmars, the surrounding area is also good for littoral plants, and the Atlantic Edge Exhibition in the Interpretative Centre is well worth a visit.
The Cliffs of Moher, from the land (top) and the water
Another 'top visitor attraction' is the Aran Islands. Doolin Harbour is again the starting place for trips, which are operated by a gaggle of ferry companies who loudly vie for custom on the harbour front. We visited Inisheer (or Inis Oirr, which is somewhat like the Scilly Isles's St Martin's for anyone who's been there), a flattish island with many stone walls, small hay meadows, and - on a good day - spectacular views to the other islands, Galway Bay, and the Connemara Mountains.
The very local
Wild (or
Babbington's)
Leek is one of the island's specialities, but highlight of the visit for most of us was finding a large colony of
Bee Orchids part-hidden in Marram Grass (photographs in a later post). Ferries are regular throughout the day, and Inisheer is a lovely place for a gentle stroll - and for a good lunch in the local tea house or pubs.
Looking from the harbour on Inisheer, and botanising on the island 
Inisheer, looking to the Connemara Mountains
I'll finish with a photo of Leamaneh Castle.
One of the many ruined buildings that are scattered around the Burren (there are many modern and/or completely rebuilt buildings too, in case that gives the wrong impression), Leamaneh is on private land and is not open to visitors. Even from the road though it is clearly two buildings in one: an Irish tower house built around 1480 (probably by Toirdelbhach Donn MacTadhg � Briain, King of Thomond, one of the last of the High Kings of Ireland), and a second construction added in 1640 to make a fortified house by Conor O'Brien and his wife, M�ire n� Mahon, one of the most infamous women in Irish folklore."
All photographs copyright Charlie Moores/Talking Naturally 2012
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