Tony Kirby was born in Limerick city. He has also lived in Dublin (civil servant) and Bologna (English language teacher). Tony moved to the Burren in County Clare in 2002, whereupon he founded Heart of Burren Walks that year. He has been a full-time Burren walking guide ever since. A new editio...

Nothing quite prepares you for a stroll through native Irish woodland, with wildflowers interspersed with coarse grasses and heather at your feet.

Gortlecka provides the lucky traveler with a peaceful walk through the Burren, a rare geological landform that at once supports a huge variety of Ir...

Corcomroe Abbey, or 'St. Mary of the Fertile Rock', is said to have been built by Donal Mór Ua Briain, late in the 12th century, and remained in continuous habitation by Cistercian monks until the mid-17th century AD. This spiritual community reflects the zeal and inspiration of earlier Irish mis...

The story of Saint Colman Mac Duagh is hidden in history but a good starting point is the short but beautiful walk across the limestone pavement of Burren National Park to the base of a cliff where, nestled amid woodland scrub and flowing streams, lies the ruins of an Early Christian Hermitage. T...

Poll na Brón (Hole of the Millstone) is a Irish Neolithic Dolmen, dating to approximately 4,000BC, based on the human remains interred there. It is a gravestone to our great ancestors. Amazingly, it also houses the first earliest discovery of Down syndrome from an infant buried there over 5,000 y...

Mullaghmore mountain sits in the very heart of the Burren National Park; poetically described by John O'Donohue, author of Anam Cara as '...a sacred mountain' whose folded shapes 'evokes a poignancy and a sense of reverence. Once glimpsed it can never be forgotten.'

On a glorious sunny day, wit...

Ballyallaban ringfort consists of a raised circular earthen enclosure upon which a wooden palisade may have been erected to protect those living inside. Ringforts are the second most common archaeological field monument in Ireland, with approximately 60,000 examples existence. They were built by ...

Halfway up the slopes of Black Head you come across an ancient cattle highway. These 'green roads', as Tony Kirby from 'Heart of Burren Walks' explains, were used to drove cattle onto the high lands, across the slopes of the limestone pavement, where they would spend their winter, in an activity ...

Gleninagh Castle was the stronghold of the O'Loughlin family, who owned and lived in this castle from the 16th Century up until 1840AD. The distinctive L-shape of the castle allowed the main entrance to be defended by protective walls and the box machicolation, high above it, from which stones or...