Burren Community Religion

To walk in the Burren is an opportunity to refresh the mind, body and spirit. It is an opportunity to rekindle our relationship with nature, with the land, with our heritage. Given time, the Burren has the power to draw one back to the raw magic of nature, a magic that we sometimes fool ourselves into believing that we can live without.

Many people are drawn to the Burren and held there without ever quite understanding why. This indescribable magnetism found international expression during the Mullaghmore saga when the notion of this remote hill representing 'the soul of Ireland' gained considerable empathy, in somewhat the same way that Ayers Rock in Australia is so sacred to the Aboriginal people. The mysticism of the Burren has also found expression in the books of local poet John O'Donohue, in particular the best selling Anam Cara or ‘soul mate’.
The Burren itself is a source of healing for many people. For some, comfort is to be found in the weekly community celebration of mass in the Burren's churches. Though Catholicism is the dominant religion in the religion, Church of Ireland services are also available in Kilfenora.

But for people who prefer a less formal expression of faith, a solitary visit to one of the many scattered holy wells or ruinous oratories suffices. Places such as Corcomroe Abbey, dedicated to 'Our Lady of the Fertile Rock', where the limestone of the Burren soars symmetrically to the heavens, embody the deep sense of soul that the Burren holds for many people. But the bewitching enthralment of the Burren is to be experienced not only at this spectacular site, but in the most unlikely of places.

We find it in the deep green interior of the scattered woodland pockets, high on the windswept limestone plateaux, amidst the fragrant multicoloured summer meadows and pastures, and in innumerable other places and ways. The God of small things, to borrow a phrase, is everywhere to be found in the Burren, an indefinable yet inescapable presence.