Burren Agriculture Overview

The surprise expressed by many visitors to the Burren to the fact that these rugged hills are home to a long and illustrious agricultural tradition is both amusing and ironic. Many are misled perhaps by the ostensibly barren, rocky, appearance of the hills, and by the absence of livestock on them over the summer season when most people choose to visit.

Little do these visitors realise it, but the fascinating cultural and natural heritage that attracts them to the Burren is essentially a legacy of this agricultural tradition. Furthermore, the future security of this wonderful legacy very much depends on upon a continuation of these traditions.

It is also somewhat ironic to note that it was this agricultural wealth, and not the flora or archaeology, that fascinated the first visitors to the Burren, over three hundred years ago. For instance, Dineley (1681) noted that the Burren 'raises earlier beef and mutton … than any land in this kingdom, and much sweeter by reason of the sweet herbs intermixed and distributed everywhere'.

From an agricultural perspective, the Burren uplands are primarily associated with the practice of 'winterage'. This is an unusual adaptation of the 'transhumance' tradition (the seasonal moving of livestock by farmers) found in upland areas elsewhere in Europe, wherein animals are moved to the hill pastures in summertime.

In the Burren uplands, this system was reversed to optimally exploit the unusual attributes afforded by the region's limestone geology. Up until quite recently, hardy native breeds of beef cattle were used to graze upland grasslands between the months of October and April, requiring scarcely any dietary supplement prior to their removal to finishing grass elsewhere.

The ecological significance of this tradition is immense: wintering animals removed all the litter and grasses that would otherwise inhibit herb growth and limit plant species diversity, without damaging these plants during their flowering season. The cultural legacy of this ancient practice is apparent in the numerous tombs, ring forts and tower houses found in the upland pastures.

Enormous changes have been wrought on the agricultural sector of the Burren, as elsewhere, in recent years, particularly since Ireland's accession to the EEC and the increasing exposure to the international marketplace and to advances in the field of agricultural science.

Some of the more significant changes would come under the heading of 'intensification' - involving extensive reclamation, increased use of chemical fertilisers and slurry, the construction of slatted housing units, the massive increase in silage production, and increases in the amount of stock held. Such intensification has occurred widely in the richer valleys that intersect the Burren's limestone hills.

Other changes would be categorised under 'specialisation': traditionally the Burren would have supported small, labour-intensive mixed farming systems. Today this has evolved into a highly mechanised and specialised system involving the more lucrative production of continental weanlings (young calves) from suckler (non-dairy) cows for the export market.

A worrying implication of these changes in the Burren has been the increasing 'marginalisation' of upland grasslands, often manifesting itself in the form of hazel-scrub encroachment. Agriculture has become increasingly concentrated in lowland areas that are more amenable to modern farming systems, while less adaptable and accessible upland areas are becoming increasingly neglected, as their feeding capacity is displaced by that of imported fodder, their sheltering capacity increasingly devalued by the construction of slatted houses.

Naturally, such enormous disruption over such a short time, in what was formerly a quite balanced and harmonious relationship between agriculture and the natural environment in the Burren, will inevitably have enormous implications for the future ecological and cultural development of the area.

While some of these implications are already evident, research to identify future changes, and to inform appropriate remedial measures, is essential. The Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) introduced in 1995 offers considerable hope for the future protection of this agricultural landscape, and of the livelihoods of its custodians, the farming community.

BURREN AGRICULTURE OVERVIEW