The Burren

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Random bits and pieces of info

The Burren Co. Clare is on the west coast of Ireland about 4 hours drive from Dublin. The main crag Ailladie (meaning ‘The Blind Man’s Cliff) is on the coast road from Lisdoonvarna to Ballyvaughen. Ailladie is hidden from sight about 1.5km from where the road meets the coast. However it’s easily located by the well used lay-bys for the tour buses. The bottom of the crag is accessed via a fisherman’s descent to the North.

1 Crags
2 Guide Book
3 Parking
4 Camping
5 Pubs
6 Other References

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Crags

The main crag is Ailladie, probably the best sea cliff climbing in the country. The rock is perfect, compact limestone which drops straight into the sea for the most of the crag (miles long). Nearly all the routes tend to follow sharp shattered crack lines of varying widths. Just like Fairhead only a few routes have quested up the bold, blank-looking walls in between these crack lines.

Across the Road from Ailladie is Ballyryan, with some good routes such as triumph crack

Doolin has some excellent Bouldering, a sample chapter from the new guide book can be downloaded from various places on the net.

A few of us (Colm, Jenny and Me (Mark) leading) climbed at Murroughkilly (Far North Buttress) during the Summer of 2006 and had a lot of fun on crumbling routes, Colm was determined to kill Christine by dropping huge chunks of rock at her, getting up a belay was also fun. Despite the difficultlies the route I did (Coakley's Hammer) was a classic.

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Guide Book

The current guide book ‘Burren’ is the MCI 1997 publication edited by Calvin Torrans and Clare Sheridan.

Peter Owens of NUI Galway is currently writing the new one.

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Parking

Cars can be parked at the large lay-by at the top of the Ailladie crag for access to Ailladie and Ballyryan. Care should be taken to leave enough room for the tour buses to get parked.

For access to the bouldering at Doolin, Go North out of Doolin until you come to the Aran View Hotel. Park on the road near the Hotel or in the church car park. Walk down the small lane opposite the Aran View to its end (you can drive down to the end to drop off passenger and boulder mats but due to farm access etc probably best not to draw attention to yourself). From the end of the lane go through a gate and follow the right hand side of the wall down to the sea. Near the end scramble over some boulders to arrive at Base Camp.

For access to Murroughkilly continue North along the coast road past Ailladie for about 2miles (total guess from memory) there is a light house on the left side of the road. Park on the small space oposite this and walk uphill, past the old fort until you see a long expanse of crag. From memory I think the routes we climbed on were in the centre or just to the right of centre

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Camping

The land at the top of the Ailladie crag belongs to a local farmer and should not be camped on. Camping ground can be found about 800m further south on the coast side of the road.

Alternatively Doolin has an excellent camp site at the end of the village near the harbour. Thats were we stayed

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Pubs

Lots of Guinness and fiddle-de-de music can be found in the lively little town of Doolin.

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Other References

Gregor's definitive guide to Doolin bouldering which will appear in the forthcoming new edition of the Burren climbing guide is available for download:

Doolin Bouldering Chapter available from The Short Span