The Burren is awesome; for its sheer uniqueness it ranks highly on the places I visited. It's like being in a gigantic quarry. The hills here look almost man-made, as if someone kept stacking rocks up and up for several generations.

The Burren is also a key to understanding Irish architecture. The numerous stone walls, circle forts, and castles make much more sense when you see that the Irish could pretty much pull a cart up to the hill, cut some large stones, and carry them away.

We visited one megalithic structure in the Burren, Poulnabrone tomb, which is popular postcard photograph. Looking at the photos beforehand, I had the impression that the tomb was much larger and would be visible from a mile away. As it turns out, its barely larger than a person, and wouldn't be worth visiting if the rest of the Burren weren't so darn cool.

The photo gallery contains numerous photos, including some drive-by ruins we saw on the way out and a dog riding on a tractor.

The Burren Photo Gallery (60 photos)