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Home , Burren Smokehouse, Cliffs of Moher, The Burren

078 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA BOUNTY Inland from western ’s mighty , to the rhythms flavours and nature.of NOVEMBER 2016 offersa sensory journey connected OF THE Words SERENA RENNER

PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY NOVEMBER 2016 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 079 OU’LL KNOW YOU have reached “Because it’s predominantly grey rock, the the Burren when the Burren reflects light continuously; it’s like watching coastline in western Ireland turns a movie,” says Peter , as he sits beneath the into stone. (The name comes from antiques and old photos adorning his Roadside the Gaelic word ‘boireann’, which Tavern in , one of the oldest pubs in means ‘stony place’.) Everywhere the area. “If you’re a photographer, October is the you look, grey is stacked and spiralled time to come because the sun has gone back towards Ylike a surrealist sculpture. But the Burren is far from the Equator. So you don’t have the golden summer barren, as proven by its UNESCO Global Geopark light. You have the silver light of autumn. status. Just look closer at the rocks — hewn by “The Burren is also very special in terms of the geological forces over 360 million years — and grasses. If you take a piece of wood, about the size you might see marine fossils, burial sites, of a folded newspaper and drop it on the ground, and pairings of Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean you’ll find 57 different varieties of grasses and flowers blooming from the cracks in the pavement. herbs, which you can taste in the beef and lamb. It’s a landscape where, as the late Irish poet John And, being on the edge of the Atlantic, we have crab, O’Donohue said, “an ancient conversation has shrimp and cod. You are what you eat, you know?” continued between the chorus of the ocean and the Although the local food scene has only recently silence of the stone”. started turning heads towards West Clare — thanks This conversation has long been translated by in part to the Burren Food Trail, an association of FROM TOP LEFT artists, musicians and writers — from O’Donohue gourmet producers that range from St Tola Irish Wild thyme grows to The Céilí Band to The Lord of the Rings Goat Cheese to Burren-made Anam Coffee and out of the Burren trilogy author JRR Tolkien. Now a new generation of delicious Hazel Mountain Chocolate — the Curtins limestone; the Poulnabrone artisans is offering a fresh take on the area’s story. have been in the business since 1893. portal tomb; a Today, travellers who venture deeper into the Peter’s grandfather ran a bakery in the tavern traditional Irish pub lines a County Clare countryside from the Cliffs of Moher and the Wild that was famous for its ‘crusties’ — the butt ends street; staff at The Atlantic Way embark on a journey for the senses: of loaves that were fluffy on one side, crunchy on Burren Perfumery. OPENER The filled with the traditional music and poetry of the the other. After attending University and stunning Cliffs region plus inspired foods, fragrances, and fairytales. a stint in the Merchant Navy, Curtin returned to of Moher.

080 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA JULY 2018 Lisdoonvarna and opened the with his evidence of farming, labour and conflict as well as creativity. Swedish wife Birgitta. Carrying on the family’s tradition of Their use of this sacred site over centuries conveys a heartfelt, playing with fire, the smokehouse produces Scandinavian- longstanding reverence between people and place. To the east, and Irish-style smoked salmon, which is stocked in upmarket the striped stone mountains and valleys of Burren National retailer Dean & DeLuca and has fed the Queen as well as Park unfold, studded with ring forts, holy wells, and exotic three US presidents (“the Bush Junior kid, the Clinton man and flora that star in later chapters of the Burren mythology. Nature the Obama guy,” Curtin says). In 2015, the couple opened the guide and author Tony Kirby from Heart of Burren Walks Burren Storehouse to add woodfired pizza and house-brewed is well-versed in the region’s geology and botany, and has beer to the craic. They also cater events, from the Burren Slow a fascination for ancient archaeology. “Three new tombs were Food Festival to a popular annual gathering of Tolkien fans. just discovered [in 2017],” he says, pointing out a rock grave “Have you tried the fairy beer?” Curtin asks, eyes twinkling sprouting with wild orchids. “They’re temples of the dead, but with excitement. He quickly disappears behind the bar and also places for the living. Sometimes you look in there and returns with a golden ale flecked with floating yeast — or fairy don’t see the dead at all. You see flowers; you see life.” dust. He collected the yeast from a cone-shaped hill nearby, which, in Irish mythology, was the stronghold of the Tuatha Dé HEAVEN SCENT Danann, the semi-divine beings that inhabited Ireland before At the edge of village, a single-lane road signposted the Milesians (the supposed ancestors of the modern Irish) for ‘Boston/’ leads to The Burren Perfumery, which has cast them to the underworld. The mythical people may have provided visitors with an olfactory perspective on the region’s inspired the elves in The Lord of the Rings — Tolkien was a regular plant life since 1972. Housed in a rose-covered stone cottage, visitor to the Burren — and are associated with the fairies of it specialises in seasonally inspired fragrances and organic the Irish landscape. “[The hill] is a spectacular place with a lotions, soaps, candles and balms designed by Sadie Chowen, fort that commanded the whole countryside,” Curtin says. who came to the Burren more than 25 years ago and never left. “I thought, ‘Where could be a better place to get my yeast?’.” “I arrived in Carran on a visit to see a friend and felt a Crowning the scenic R480 road, the very strong sense of being here before,” says Chowen, who portal tomb could have been a contender. The stone structure, was born in England and raised in France. While not all the topped with a 1.5-tonne capstone, is one of the oldest known ingredients are sourced from the Burren, some products do megalithic monuments in Ireland — older than the Egyptian include flowers and herbs that grow here, and everything is pyramids. Human remains that date back to 4200 BCE show handcrafted on site. The range is broken down into six scent

JULY 2018 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 081 DETAILS categories, from the seaweed and moss- infused Atlantic Coast to the Grassland Burren Smokehouse that smells beautifully of meadowsweet, Kincora Rd, lady’s bedstraw and hawthorn flowers. Rathbaun, Lisdoonvarna; www. “I really wanted to represent the burrensmokehouse. Burren as I experienced it,” Chowen says. com. Heart of Burren Walks “For me, what you are trying to do in Regular walks depart a perfume is convey an experience, opposite Cassidy’s Pub & Restaurant, such as going into the herb garden in Carran; www. the morning. It has probably just been heartofburrenwalks. raining and there is water on the herbs. com. Linnalla Irish Ice Cream Finavarra; The Spring Harvest [fragrance] is trying www.linnalla to crystallise that greenness, that quality icecream.ie. Roadside Tavern of being just so immediately fresh.” and the Burren Many plants found growing around Storehouse Kincora Rd, Rathbaun, the Burren — wild thyme, marjoram, Lisdoonvarna; www. elderflower — can be spotted in the roadsidetavern.ie. The Burren perfumery’s gardens, to be sampled in Perfumery Follow soups and salads at The Tea Rooms cafe. signs from Carran; “This is the culinary garden,” Chowen www.burren perfumery.com. says, sniffing the backs of leaves. “It’s amazing just how divorced people are GOURMET from what they eat,’’ she says. “The plants STAYS we grow here are the same ones you eat, the same ones you put in your teas, the Burren Glamping same ones you put on your skin.” A wood-panelled horse trailer parked at the Burren Free THE NATIVE LAND Range Pork Farm The last place to challenge your senses provides country- chic accommodation, is along the Flaggy Shore, made famous including a full Irish by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney in breakfast. R476, Kilfenora; www. Postscript. The pebbly coastline that juts burrenglamping. up from Bellharbour on the County com. Gregans Castle Hotel This Galway border is scattered with fossils 18th-century manor holding clues to the tropical seabed that house was once the hideaway of JRR once covered the area, and the glaciers Tolkien. Enjoy dinner that brought disparate rocks, as well as in view of the superb odd plant pairings, together. The shore limestone hills. Road N67, ; ends at Finavarra to the west. On one www.gregans.ie. side of nearby Lough Murree, Linnalla Wild Honey Inn You can dine in style on Irish Ice Cream transforms its foraged a set menu of some ingredients such as gorse, blackberries French-style Burren classics including and hazelnuts into seasonal flavours local salmon at this with milk from its 19th-century dairy Michelin-starred farm across the road. gastropub. Kincora Rd, Lisdoonvarna; Walking to the farm, ice-cream cone www.wildhoney in hand, a wall monument reminds you inn.com. of that “ancient conversation” between man, sea and land. In capital letters, next to a painted rainbow, the wall reads: “The Finavarra man loves his native land like barnachs love the stone.” ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES FROM TOP A horse GETTING THERE VIRGIN AUSTRALIA OFFERS grazes on the Cliffs FLIGHTS TO DUBLIN WITH ITS CODESHARE of Moher; restaurant PARTNER ETIHAD AIRWAYS. TO BOOK, VISIT of the Gregans WWW.VIRGINAUSTRALIA.COM OR CALL

Castle Hotel. 13 67 89 (IN AUSTRALIA). PHOTOGRAPHY

082 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA JULY 2018