Carran Church Ruins

Despite the map provided to us at the Burren Centre in Kilfenora, we still had difficulty finding the “entrance” to the Burren National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that protects Ireland’s unique karst landscape. That we were driving instead of hiking may have been part of our problem since there is no vehicle access within the park.

Oh well. Instead, we decided to take a rural road that looked like it cut through some karst landscape. The bonus? We knew this route would take us to another interesting spot.

I’m not sure what it is about ruins that I find so photogenic. It doesn’t matter what kind of ruins they are ... castle, farm, manor house, church, or city. It doesn’t matter how old they are. I just have to take a couple of photographs.

And that’s how we came to stop at the ruins of the Carran Church.

There’s not much left of the church that served the largest parish in the Burren between the 13th and 16th centuries. To get to the ruins, we had to park along the road, climb over a stone wall, and walk along a long path with overgrown grass. We didn’t dally long as there wasn’t much to see, but for a “ruins lover” it was worth the short trek.Read more