The Burren Code

The people of the Burren welcome visitors to Ireland's most extraordinary landscape. The Burren may look rugged, but it is a fragile place and is under threat from increased human activity.
The people who live in the Burren depend on the landscape for their livelihoods based on agriculture and tourism. The limestone pavement, flora and built heritage are the resources on which tourism in The Burren thrives. Respecting and conserving this resource will sustain the community's wellbeing.
Support The Burren Code and help protect the limestone pavement, plants and built heritage of this irreplaceable 'fertile rock'.

The Limestone Landscape

Much of the limestone pavement is private property and is being farmed in the traditional way that maintains the nature of the limestone landscape. It is offensive to landowners to enter their property and to damage walls and pavement - this is their home and their privacy should be respected.
Some visitors to the Burren adopt the recent fad for building miniature cairns and dolmens, damaging the shattered limestone pavements and compromising the natural landscape. Local people including school children spend their spare-time on the pavements undoing this damage.
Weathered limestone has been used in garden rockeries for some time and the Burren's limestone pavements are being exploited to supply the market. Never remove weathered limestone from the Burren and avoid buying souvenirs or products made of weathered limestone. It is illegal to remove stone from the pavement or boundary walls.
Limestone pavement is protected under the European Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).

Plants and Flowers

More than 700 different flowering plants and ferns have been recorded in the Burren. Thus, although the Burren represents only 1% of the land mass of Ireland, 75% of the Irish native species are contained in the area.
Help protect the wildflowers of the Burren: never pick flowers or remove plants or tamper with their habitats.
Parking on the limestone pavement or grassland damages habitats.
It is prohibited to pick or uproot plants in national parks and nature reserves.

Monuments, Houses and Field Walls

The built heritage of the Burren has evolved over the past 5,000 years. Sites such as prehistoric tombs, monasteries and ringforts are well known, but traditional houses, field
walls and ancient road systems are also vital to the unique character of The Burren.
The more important heritage sites are maintained by Dúchas - the Heritage Service as national monuments. Take care not to disturb any of these monuments and respect all of the built heritage.
It is illegal to deface, damage or remove any part of the built heritage.

The Burren Code has been developed by the Burren Tourism Joint Steering Committee, comprising representatives of: Clare County Council, Dúchas - the Heritage Service and Shannon Development in partnership with the tourism industry, local community and environmental interest groups.