Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland

Ballyvaughan is a small Irish harbor and town in County Clare, on the south shore of Galway Bay. Ballyvaughan is surrounded by a great expanse of rocky landscape, or Burren, and is generally described as one of the most picturesque locations in Ireland. It's a typical Irish Market village, with a mixture of old and new. The views are stunning; it's pretty hard to find anything anywhere without a view of some sort. You can easily get around on foot or bicycle, which are readily available for hire by the day or week at several shops in the village. There are a variety of cottage stay bed and breakfasts, self-catering apartments, and modern hotels. There are several local pubs and, many many artisans selling hand made art.

Historically, Ballyvaughan has a troubled past. In May of 1921 the IRA ambushed and killed two of the British marines stationed just outside Ballyvaughan, and wounded two others. It was this event that inspired Sara Spot's short animation about Ballyvaughan.

Ballyvaughan is a super place to use as a central point while you explore the surrounding area, including Galway Bay, one of the most picturesque bays in the world, loved by sailors for centuries. Don't forget the Cliffs of Moher, Aillte an Mhothair (Cliffs of the Ruin) which run along the the south-western edge of Galaway Bay. The cliffs rise more than 700 feet above the sea, and run for just under five miles along some of the most beautiful, rugged coastline in the world. There are a wide variety of nesting seabirds residing in the cliffs, as well as two towers. O'Brien's Tower was built on the headland by Cornelious O'Brien in 1835 as a tourist attraction for visitors who were already coming to admire the view. The tower looks off towards Hags Head to the sourth, and Doolin towards the north. From the cliffs themselves, you can see the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, The Twelve pins and the Maum Turk mountains of Connemara.

There's a new Cliffs of Moher Interpretive Visitors Center with a variety of exhibits about the history, the geology and the wildlife of the area, carefully designed to fit into the hill itself, and then surrounded by turf. The cliffs themselves have very carefully been left as unspoiled as possible, and much of it is designated as a protected bird preserve. Species include nesting Atlantic puffins, as well as the sorts of seabirds you'd expect: gulls, guillemots, as well as a variety of hawks, ravens, and choughs. Local cruises and ferry trips are popular ways to see the cliffs from the sea, as well. The small slightly rectangular ruin at Hag's Head is thought to be the remnants of a watch tower built during Napolean's rampage across Europe. It's a popular surfing area as well, if you're a top notch surfer.

Burren, or "the Burren" derived from Irish Boireann, or "great rock", is the several miles of rocky outcropping in northwest County Clare. In the 1640s during the English civil war, when Oliver Cromwell ravaged Ireland, Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law described Burren in a letter as "a country where there is not wood enough to hang a man, water enough to drown him, nor earth enough to bury him." The karst, limstone outcroppings pushed up through the earth millions of years ago, is riddled with deep cracks and holes. Over time they've filled with rich organic matter, and plants have taken root, ranging from calcium-rich grasses, which the wild goats love, to a variety of flowering plants. In fact, the Burren provides a unique habitat for thousands of plants, including both alpine species and mediterranean species, and even a few that are usually associated with the arctic. There are over thirty variety of orchids, including some species that are unique to Burren.

Five miles south of Ballyvaughan in the Burren is Poulnabrone Dolmen, a Neolithic portal tomb; the Irish Poll na mBrón or "hole of sorrows" is a particularly appropriate name. The above ground structure consists of two massive granite standing "portal" stones, which support the capstone on top of them, and create a small chamber. When one of the portal stones cracked, the tomb was dismantled and the stone was repaired, but archaeologists took the opportunity to excavate the tomb. At least 22 people, a mixture of children and adults, were buried with a variety of grave goods, including stone tools and pottery. A late bronze age burial just outside the portal indicates that the site was important for a very long time; indeed, it's visible on the otherwise barren landscape for some distance.

I'll leave you with this video of a November walk up from Ballyvaughan into the Burren.