Ireland for a biologist?
 

I am very excited to be planning our first family trip to Ireland for June 2006! Finally got my husband to agree!

I am most interested in the people and the culture of Ireland. But my husband is a biologist and when he looks at pictures of Ireland he says in dismay, "Where are all the trees? They cut them down!"

It is my challenge to plan a 2-week trip to Ireland which satisfies my desire to experience the culture and people of Ireland, but which also includes some sites which warm a biologists heart...my husband enjoys places where nature is unspoiled...whether it's ocean or desert, he looks for places which still have native flora and fauna...He also likes places with interesting geography/geology.

Any suggestions? So far we are going to include the wildflowers at the Burren in County Clare.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Whoa Nelly! Appears the sisters may have made a fresh batch of dingleberry wine too...

Anyways...

Melissa, the Burren is a great call. The karst formations and the flowers are very unique. Get a little botany, a little geology. A little history too if you stop by the Poulnabrone Dolman site. That area was de-nuded (shouldn't that be the opposite of nuded?) back in prehistoric times.

As far as other sort of environments. I think the peat bogs of the Connemara are something to see from a "different" sort of way, in that they've had a lot to do with the way of life in that area and the drive through the Lough Inagh valley is some of the best of it. Also the National Park there is good for walking.

The Wicklow mountains are pretty well forested and the middle of the country is not as barren as other areas. Actually, it's not a barren place at all, but some of the more famous spots are exposed to N. Atlantic winds and are not as treed.

Fauna? Hmmm... I honestly can't recall ever having seen wildlife. I've looked for snakes, just to check up on St. Patrick's work, but the man was indeed thorough. Otherwise, sheep are your most likely option. Then again, I didn't see wildlife in Romania either and it's supposed to have 80% of the wildlife in Europe so it just be my eyes.

Melissajoy, I think that nellyanne is having a bit of fun on the forum. I agree toatlly about the Burren and Wicklow Mountains. Here is my list of places that might interest your husband:

Aran Islands
Giant's Causeway & Antrim Coast
Rock of Cashel
Dingle, Beara and Mizen Peninsulas
Loop Head
Connemara
Lough Derg
Achill Island
Donegal
Slieve Bloom Mountains (Ireland's largest blanket bog)

There are still trees and lovely wooded drives in Ireland. Just recently I stopped in Dundrum (Co. Tipperary). Out near the hotel are beautiful woods. Also, Killarney National Park has native woods. For a naturalized garden & woodland walks your husband might enjoy Derreen Gardens on the Beara Peninsula. I'm sure you will get more comments as time goes along.

I should have added the Cliffs of Moher to my list!

Thanks so much for giving me more places to check out for my biologist husband in Ireland.

He is very generous of heart to agree to this trip just for me, and I want to make sure that when he's there he'll experience the thrill of discovery, just as I know I will. Marriage is always a wonderful challenge, you enrich each other by merging and blending the passions of the both of you...and NOT just in the bedroom either!

I hope to travel to Ireland more than once, and I want my husband to be willing to do a second trip someday after our first trip!

Any other ideas of Ireland through a biologist's eyes, I'd be thrilled to hear them.

Nellyanne, you have a delightful sense of humor. You gave me a chuckle! Haven't heard anyone say anything is "wee" since my Irish grandmother who I adored...she would offer me a wee cup of tea, and she would put on a wee pot of mush (oatmal), although her wee pot was quite large actually, and she would stir it for hours!

I don't think we will be driving into any trees as we don't drink and drive...but the way you tell the story makes me smile.

Actually most biologists don't cut up animals, they patch them up instead when they are injured or sick! But when your snake gets hungry, a mouse must be sacriced...the captive bred mice are so dumb they get in line to volunteer as snake food!

Did the British really chop down the trees?! I thought Ireland must have had to clear the forests to make room for farmland...weren't the Irish starving years ago before all those potatoes were planted? ONe of the things I want to do is understand Ireland's history and culture better.

Melissa:

One of the saddest things about Ireland is how much of its history gets distorted by the emotion so many people attach to it.

Ireland started to get deforested around 3000BC: all those tales about cattle wars require cattle-friendly land - and densely wooded land isn't cattle-friendly.

Population growth up to the Famine did, indeed, involve further deforestation- though a lot of those potato beds were put in places whose climate had prevented tree growth anyway. There's an anti-English argument, however, that overpopulation was itself a British-created problem, since Cromwell forced an unsustainably large population to the marginal lands of the far west.

And, yes, trees were chopped down for ships, as they were throughout the British Isles - though in the areas I'm more familiar with, this didn't create long-term deforestation, since the State hyperactively intervened to ensure replanting. In fact the usual complaint, certainly in England, is that the Navy forced an ecologically unnecessary bias to oaks.

The only way to understand something as emotionally charged as Irish history is to read as many books as possible, written over a long timespan, to try to get their biases to cancel each other out.

"Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape" by Aalen, Stout and Whelan (Toronto, 1997) investigates your question more fully and has been on my "must get round to reading" list for some time.

Thanks for raising the question, as it's now nudged that book onto the "stop faffing and get on with it" list.

flanneruk, thanks, I'll look into getting that book as well.

Melissa

I definitely secind the suggestion of Giant's Causeway & Antrim Coast, especially as I believe you are heading up North to Armagh. Giant's Causeway area is about 1 & 1/2 hours drive from Armagh. If you need advice on accommodations, etc, up there, let me know.

Angela

Melissa Joy: You have a lot of good tips. Connemara and the Beara Peninsula have a lot to offer your husband. There's a decent nature display at the Killarney National Park center (http://homepage.tinet.ie/~knp/intro/index.htm) and there's a good center at Kilfenora on the Burren (http://www.theburrencentre.ie/).

I highly recommend you take a tour with Shane Connelly (http://homepage.eircom.net/~burrenhillwalks/guide.html). He lives and breathes the Burren. His viewpoint is quite interesting--as a local farmer, he believes it's ludicrous to "protect" the Burren because it is in fact an environmental disaster. I loved arguing with him--breath of fresh Irish air! I'm sure your husband would enjoy him, too.

Melissa, Lonely Planet has a great book for walks, LP Walking in Ireland ($13.99 on Amazon). It has great background on the flora and fauna, and has walks in some wonderful areas, including the forest near Glengarrif, which is one of the few areas of old growth left in Ireland. It also also has a walk for the only salt-water lake in Europe (can't remember the name,but it's in Cork).
As for the snakes, I never saw any of them, but did come across a scaly lizard on Mizen Head!

I've luckily never seen a snake in Ireland. The legends are true.

Unfortunately, there still is a fair amount of logging going on in Ireland. When we hiked the Wicklow Way several years ago, I was dismayed at how the forests were being systematically dismantled. The logging companies are planting replacements, but they are taking the cheap route, of course, and not planting the same type of pine that they cut down.

That said, there still are more unspoiled than spoiled parts of Ireland. Connemara would fascinate your husband. And I'm not going to repeat all of the other suggestions, except that a trip up north is definitely worthwhile. Because we don't get as many tourists, it's much less unspoiled up here than in the republic.

Last year, our trip to County Clare was a glorius event. The weather was kind to us and the people were even more kind. We did, however, meet with an unfortunate spat of mosquitoes which were breeding in the river's crossing, we were told. Two in our tour group of 14 came down with African malaria. One in our group was diagnosed with rickettsia (sp?) and a fourth person, we later heard through a member of our church, was known to have taken ill from something the local doctors had a great difficulty in diagnosing. Somebody later postulated that it could have been dengue (sp?). I was not affected by any maladies and have another trip planned for the spring of 2005.

This is from an official govt site from Northern Ireland. I can only imagine that the Republic's site will be a wee bit more "emotinal"

"From about the 16 th century, recorded history begins to tell the story of exports of timber from Ireland. Barrel staves for example were exported to England, Scotland, Holland, Spain, France and even the Canary Islands. It is recorded that in 1615, Ireland was sending 30 cargoes of staves annually to the Mediterranean. Iron ore was also being imported from England and Spain and large quantities of wood were used to fuel smelting works. Other uses of timber recorded were house building, tanneries and ship building. As industry grew, so did the exploitation of much of our native woodland. The tree cover dwindled to as little as 2% by 1800. Towards the end of the 17th Century, some imported conifers were being used in house building, as native resources became scarce. Some reafforestation started to take place by private landowners, assisted by government grants between 1800 and 1840. Norway spruce, beech and sycamore were introduced from the continent and Scots pine began to be re-introduced. This continued into the 19th century when with the implementation of the 1880 Land Acts, the break up of the large estates resulted in further deforestation.
By 1900, woodlands only accounted for 1% of the land area in Ireland, and the government realised that urgent action was necessary to reverse this trend."

enthusiastic seconding Amelia's recommendation of Shane Connelly's Burrenwalks. He's based out of Ballyvaughan. I took a walk with him last August, found him to be an absolute gold mine of information and lore, someone who clearly loves the land and its stories. Also a good sport adapting to our different skill levels - well, walking can mean something quite unexpected in the Burren.

ANGELA, thank you! I just found a photo of the fascinating Giant's Causeway and I think the whole family would enjoy seeing it. The description of the Antrim coast sounds beautiful.

Can you suggest a place to stay for 3 nights that would be a good base for seeing all of these northern Ireland sights: the Giant's Causeway, the Antrim coast, and County Armagh (where my Irish grandmother grew up)? I would especially enjoy staying in a small, friendly, family-run B&B.

Thanks for the suggestions, Angela.

AMELIA, thanks for the great tips!

you can all see more of flannernik's nonsense on hereand how I dealt him a swift blow!

Hopefully we can get back to the original question...Best places for viewing nature in Ireland? My husband is a biologist and enjoys seeing native plants and wildlife...and interesting natural environments.

One thing my daughter has expressed interest in seeing are the seal-viewing sites. We've visited a few in the US and Canada, and she has made me wait for hours while she observes . . . and observes . . . the seals. (I've learned to bring a book.)

I don't know anything about such sites in Ireland personally, but here's a start:
http://celt.net/iss/
http://www.irishsealsanctuary.ie/

The Skellig Rock off the south west coast of Ireland is a very special place.It was a monastic settlement up to 1,000 years ago and some of the stone buildings are still intact 600 feet above the sea.There are steps all the way up.Many kinds of birds live there now and on the Little Skellig nearby.See details on www.lakehotel.ie/skelligs.htm