Burren Nature Sanctuary

There was a leaflet about the Burren Nature Sanctuary, with very little information on it, in our apartment.  We looked it up on the internet.  It seemed possibly a little basic, and mainly aimed at children, but since we had to go to Kinvara anyway, to get some fuel, we thought we would give it a go.  After all, the weather was very showery, so going for anything more outdoor was not on the cards.

In fact, it undersells itself on the internet.  It clearly is mainly aimed at children - it was €10 for children, and only €5 for adults (or free if you are over 65).  But we spent an enjoyable few hours there.  First they laid on a talk about the botany of the area, just for us!  This talk is normally given twice a day, but as they were very quiet, they did an extra performance for us.  The woman doing the talk was clearly VERY knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the Burren.

Then we did the walk around the sanctuary with boards at regular intervals explaining what we might see.  They even have an app so you can get an audio commentary on your smart phone - though working out which station you should listen to was sometimes complicated.

Despite the rain, we enjoyed seeing a number of wild flowers, and other things.  I am not very knowledgeable  about wild flowers - I think I have identified these plants as silverweed (bottom left) and dog violet, (bottom middle), but have not been able to identify the blue one at the top right.  The moth is a speckled yellow, and probably no-one needs telling that the bird is a bullfinch.

After walking round, we enjoyed a cup of coffee and scone in the cafe, and then came back to our apartment.  All in all, a decent way of passing some showery weather.