Nancy and Julianne's Travels: Wildflower garden in the Burren Geopark, Ireland

Wild flowers tuck themselves into the grikes of the limestone, mixed grasses fill in the hollows among limestone pavements, hazels, holly and ash trees establish themselves along edges in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. May and June are a wildflower garden in this wild empty place. Mount Mullaghmore, above, was an area we hiked to enjoy the varied flowers.

The Burren is designated by the EU as a Geopark, unique in the world. Ireland has set aside 1,150 hectares as Burren National Park. We are lucky to be here for the flowers in addition to all the other treasures of the area. We have been here long enough to see a progression of blooms and to see many corners of the 50-sq-mile area.

Glaciers scraped off shale and soil down to the bare limestone; the Burren is the southern extremity of the last glaciation. Thin soil, formed since in cracks and hollows, supports a complex array of plants rarely found together. Plants from the arctic, Mediterranean and alpine areas grow together in this unique setting.

To us, this looks like a wild, natural setting, untouched by man. It's sparsely inhabited now. But this is a landscape much altered by humans. Beginning about 6,000 years ago, populations of farming people entered Ireland from the western seas with their grazing cattle, sheep and goats. They grew wheat and barley and raised animals. The traces of their field systems and stone-built graves and homesteads show a dense neolithic population. Population diminished between 2500 BC and 400 AD. Then during the early middle ages, the population grew again, leaving much evidence of living areas and mixed farming/grazing. We see the stone walls of their fields, the remains of their churches and homesteads. Then in the early modern era population density increased again, until the potato famine of the 1840's emptied the land.

Over several millennia farming and grazing kept the trees and brush down so that the small grasses and flower systems could flourish. Glaciers and human use formed the unique ecosystem. Flowering plants from Mediterranean, alpine and arctic flourish together as no where else in the world.

Wildflower garden

Spring gentian: usually found in the Alps and Pyrenees.

Bloody Cranesbill: a geranium species from the Mediterranean area.

Bee orchid: a south European species

Mountain Avens: a tundra species

Spring orchid: Mediterranean species

Hoary rock-rose: a Mediterranean flower

Grasses

Mixed grasses with native flowers provide feed for cattle during the winter season when they are put to graze in the uplands. The cattle and sheep keep the brush down and are essential for the health of the current unique ecosystem. Ireland is designated a beef and dairy producing area within the EU and there is effort to maintain the traditional grazing patterns in order to protect the Burren ecosystem and keep the beef production high. The western Burren is beef-country; the east side supports dairy herds (where we get our favorite cheese). Sheep are all around; goats are uncommon because they remind the local folks of the starvation years.

Mixed grass with cowslips, ferns.

Mixed grasses; excellent feed for livestock.

Thorn, ash, hazel scrub re-growing in ungrazed areas.

Effects of Famine

The modern era famine of the 1840's affected the burren by forcing the population into the highlands for survival.

Hiking on a famine relief road where make-work was provided for the peasants whose potato crop failed.
The road ends here where the workers died.

We are in what was a potato field, feeding several hundred people before 1845.
They carried manure and compost to the high elevations to find space to grow food.

More pictures of wildflowers. I just exalt in the tiny things growing everywhere. And I am comforted that something as terrible as the famine has contributed to their ability to flourish.