Western Ireland Tour, Day 1:  into Galway

After the Cliffs, we journeyed northward, into the remarkable landscape of the Burren.  This vast limestone rock plateau was described by Cromwell's surveyor as "a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury."  But a wide array of mediterranean and alpine flowers flourish here, making for a stark visual contrast.  The major site we took in here was Poulnabrone, the astonishing dolmen or "portal tomb."  It dates to perhaps the 4th millenium B.C., and offers a striking image of the dead being carried upward into the cosmos.

The stark landscape of the Burren; Poulnabrone in center

Poulnabrone

bright purple alpine flowers amidst the rocks of the Burren

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