County Clare

Guess what; there's a Boston, Ireland! We passed the sign for it when I went on my first excursion today with my study abroad program, API. The excursions included in my trip to Galway  were actually a huge reason why I chose API as my abroad program provider, and I am so glad I did. Not only do I get to go on some incredible excursions around Ireland and even to Edinburgh, Scotland, I also had the chance of meeting Kevin and Finn, my program directors. They are the most wonderful couple and mentors I could have asked for on this trip. Finn refers to herself as our "Irish sister" and she truly lives up to that title. The pair of them are a fountain of information and resources as we plan our own trips around Europe and encounter the day to day challenges of living in a foreign country. They have many stories to tell and are very admirable and influential people. Oh, and their children are so adorable! But, Finn and Kevin have made this transition into a new country so easy and I am so grateful for their guidance.

Anyways,  all 40 of us in my program loaded onto the bus at 10 a.m. and headed off in the direction of County Clare. Along the way, we made a stop at Dunguaire Castle on the very outskirts of the small oysetring town of Kinvarra. The tower was built in 1520 by the Hynes clan (ironic, Hynes is my boss's name from the restaurant at home I work in and he told me that his family is from Galway!) How cool is that?! So anyways, the castle has since been restored to as we see it today, and you can actually use the castle's banquet hall for events!


From here, we travelled up to the Burren in County Clare. The "Burren" is derived from the Irish word "Boireann" meaning "Land of Rock". The Burren is a national park of Ireland and much of it is covered in... rock! It is Limestone, to be exact, and according to our wonderful tour guide, Tony Kirby, author of "The Burren and The Aran Islands: Walking Tour", 50% of Ireland is covered in the stone. Fissures called grikes can be seen running their course through the stone, and plants grow through these cracks. The climate is an interesting aspect of the Burren. the temperature stays fair through January (sunny but just a tad nippy today) and for this reason, it has some of the best agriculture in all of Ireland and Britain and sustains a variety of plant growth. The Burren, ironically, is also where most farmers bring their cattle up to when the winter months set in. This isn't because of the cold, more so than that if the cattle were left elsewhere, they would destroy the fields from grazing due to the heavy winter rains in Ireland. In the Burren, there is so much green and the climate is so temperate that there is no worry about the cattle harming the agriculture.

As we continued along through the Burren, we could see miles and miles of stone walls built along the expanse of the hills. They looked like lines etched out of the ground and traveled as far as the eye could see. The guide informed us that in Ireland, if all the rock walls were put together, they would expand over 250,000 km; that's a lot of stone! These walls were often used as land perimeters, but many in the Burren region were also formed as a way to keep animals out of the agriculture. There were two kinds of walls. The shorter walls were made to keep sheep in and rabbits out of the farmlands. The base of the wall was made with horizontal stones wedged together so that rabbits could not fit through the cracks, while the top was made with vertical stones that allowed a small amount of sunlight to shine through that detracted the sheep away so that they wouldn't attempt to jump the wall. The larger walls, as pictured here, were made entirely of horizontal stones jam packed together and built tall in order to keep deer out of the fields. Neither of these walls were made with any kind of mortar. They are known as dry stone walls because of this, and I don't know about you, but it amazes me that they are still standing hundreds of years later.

Our next stop was at the ruins of an incredible old monastery. This tiny church seen through the trees was built 1000 years ago at the height of pilgrimage into Ireland. It is a church in honor of the Saint Cronan, and directly outside of the church is a shrine in his honor.

The shrines at one point in time held relics of the saints such as their bones, robes, books, and more. The shrine here is a miniature replica of the church, and although the relics have since been lost or stolen by thieves, the significance still remains. The entrance to the  church is surrounded  by a ring of rock, marking the sacred grounds. On the grounds of the church, a convict would no longer be under scrutiny of common law, but instead was under church law and in the hands of God and could escape conviction. At one point in time, the church was thought to have a thatched roof as it's cover. It was restored by European settlers, as depicted by the arched entrance on the north wall as well as the
small human and animal-like faces carved into the stone. Despite the changes made, the bones of the church still remain in tact, and it is an incredible sight to see. To think that this church has seen 1000 years of history and human life is incredible.

We left the Burren and began our trek back through County Clare. We couldn't leave, however, without a stop at Hazel Mountain's Chocolate. It is a local chocolate factory at the base of the Burren mountains which produces its chocolate entirely from scratch. The house was once owned by the chocolatier's grandparents, and it is now an adorable café where you can sit and enjoy homebrewed hot chocolate, brownies, pastries, and of course delicious chocolates. Hazel Mountain Chocolates is Ireland's only bean to bar chocolate boutique. What this means is that the company buys their beans direct from the cacao farmers in Madagascar, Colombia, and Venezuela, and takes those beans and roasts them and then melts them down into the chocolate bars we know. There are two ingredients that they use in their chocolate, cacao beans and sugar cane. That is all. Any fillings or toppings such as caramel or pralines are made from scratch in the store, and the crushed berries and nuts are bought fresh or grown.

You can tour the one room factory and get samples of the delicious chocolates, but be careful because I guarantee you will go into the store after and buy some! I bought a dark chocolate with hazelnut and salted caramel bar as well as three truffles, a dark chocolate salted cocoa one, a milk chocolate and Guinness truffle, and something else with a pistachio crumble. There is so much flavor and creativity in each of the chocolates that I can't choose which one I like best!

It was a great trip off the beaten path of the traditional bus tours of the Burren, and if nothing else, if you're ever in Ireland, stop at Hazel Mountain Chocolates and do some taste testing!