As you travel through the Burren, 7,000 years of history unfolds before your eyes, with farmsteads
from the Stone Age and the Iron Age, churches, abbeys and high crosses, plus castles and fortresses
of local lords.
The region boasts a dense concentration of early church sites, whilst Corcomroe Abbey, built at the end
of the 12th century by the Cistercians, is one of the best-known monastic sites in Ireland.
The abundance of megalithic tombs and ancient farm settlements in the Burren Region indicate
a prospering agricultural-based economy steeped in antiquity. The region boasts over 75 wedge tombs,
2 portal tombs and 4 known court tombs.
The term fulachta fiadh means 'cooking places of the wild' or 'cooking places of the deer'.
Several hundred of these horseshoe-shaped mounds, that could be 5,000 years old, exist in
the Burren.
The remains of approximately 500 ring forts exist in the Burren.
These are believed to have supported Early Christian farming families and were constructed
during the period 600 - 900 AD.
Tower Houses were built from the 14th to the mid-17th century by Anglo-Irish noblemen and Gaelic lords,
with counties under Gaelic control such as Clare and Limerick showing the densest distributions.
The famous tower house of Lemeneagh in the southern Burren dates from c. 1490 AD.
|
