Description
Ailladie, Ballyryan, County Clare, Ireland
This long road known as ‘The Burren Coastal Route’ is carved into the very edge of the rocky limestone Burren. It runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean and is easily one of the most stunning scenic roads in Ireland if not the world! To the bottom of this road can be seen the 30m vertical cliff face known as “Mirror Wall” which is famous amongst rock climbers.
What I find most fascinating about this area is the sheer number of ancient stone ring forts, circles, tombs and monuments built into the hillside on the right. You can clearly see 2 large ring forts on the slope of this rocky Burren hill, however if you look very closely there are many more hidden across this area. I counted at least 11 ring forts in this scene.
These curious looking mountains and hills that make up The Burren are made from solid limestone. It’s hard to imagine but this was all at the bottom of a warm tropical sea 350 million years ago! These grey limestone Hills were created over millions of years of sediments and organic material sinking from the ocean’s surface then solidifying into rock limestone on the seafloor, creating this now exposed fossilised limestone seabed.
Due to tectonic plate movement in our earth’s crust, this ancient seabed was gradually pushed upwards into the sky! Nature has since slowly eroded away and smoothed this ancient seabed into these beautifully curved layers of stepped rock, which today is known as The Burren National Park.
She may be the most patient & slowest working artist known… but Nature is the grand sculptor of our planet 
