Day 14: Ballyvaughan - The Burren, County Clare

Ballyvaughan is an enchanting picturesque village on the West Atlantic Coast with a dramatic backdrop of the historic Burren limestone landscape and overlooking Galway Bay.

Stretching across northern Clare, the rocky, the windswept Burren region is a unique striated lunar-like landscape of barren grey limestone that was shaped beneath ancient seas, then forced high and dry by a great geological cataclysm.

The word “Burren” comes from an Irish word “Boíreann” meaning a rocky place.

I am spending two nights at the very cozy and quaint Wild Atlantic Lodge, just a 10-minute walk to Galway Bay.

Ballyvaughan has a population of only 258 and officially classified as part of the West Clare Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking community, until 1956.

Large stone tombs, known as megalithic tombs, were built throughout western Europe during the Neolithic or New Stone Age, when the practice of farming was first becoming established.

Over ninety megalithic tombs are know to survive in the Burren; the earliest of these are the court tombs and portal tombs built in the fourth millennium BC.

The portal tomb I visited at Poulnabrone is one of two constructed in the Burren and is thought to be the best preserved in all of Ireland.

This afternoon I remembered the twelve boys who were trapped in in

a Thailand cave with their soccer coach back in June because of heavy rains flooding the cave, trapping the group inside.

However, I did not think of them until I was very deep inside Aillwee Cave. Aillwee is a cave system in the karst landscape of the Burren. The name Aillwee is derived from the Irish Aill Bhuí which means "yellow cliff."

The cave was discovered in 1944, when a farmer named Jack McGann followed his dog, who was chasing a rabbit. The farmer did not explore very far into the caves, and did not tell anyone of the find for nearly 30 years. He told cavers of the cave in 1973 and that summer the cave was explored.

The cave system consists of over a kilometre of passages leading into the heart of the mountain. Its features include an underground river and a waterfall as well as some large stalactites and stalagmites.

The remains of bears can also be seen inside the caves and allusions have been made to it being the last bear den in Ireland.

The cave was opened to the public in 1976. As of 2018, roughly 300 metres (980 ft) of cave passage is open to the public, one third of the total length of the cave.

The cave is considerably older than most of the Clare caves and originally contained a large stream. The cave is now largely deserted of the stream and is heavily backfilled with glacial infill. The formations visible on the show cave tour are rarely more than 8,000 years old but calcite samples in the recesses of the cave have been dated to over 350,000 years old.

I never heard of it until I came across it on my drive. It was very spontaneous and not all that smart given my mobility issues.
But, I got out!

A beautiful rainbow came out, and stayed out, as I was having dinner at Monks Seafood on the pier overlooking Galway Bay.

After a nice meal at Monk's, I stopped into Greene's, a Traditional Irish pub with live music situated in the centre of Ballyvaughan Village next door to the Wild Atlantic Lodge where I am staying tonight and tomorrow night.

When I arrived at Greene's "Snug Bar" I was chatted up by a local named Sean Wilson. We talked for about 30-minutes before he excused himself, because, to my surprise, he was the live music!
This was his first song and he very kindly dedicated it to me...

A Satisfied Mind

"How many times have you heard someone say
If I had his money I'd do things my way
Hmm, but little they know
Hmm, it's so hard to find
One man in ten with a satisfied mind.

Hmm, once I was wading in fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed of to get a start in life's game
But suddenly it happened
Hmm, I lost every dime
But I'm richer by far with a satisfied mind.

Hmm, when my life is over and my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones I'll leave there ain't no doubt
But one things for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind."