Caving in Ireland, County Clare

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In July 2023, Claire and I spent a week in the Burren area of County Clare, Ireland and squeezed in a few caving trips…

Through the power of Facebook we had reached out to local caver Pat Cronin to help us locate and possibly guide a few trips. Pat provided a wealth of advice but due to existing commitments was unable to actually lead any trips. This task fell upon his friend and other local caver Paul McGrath.

The Burren at the coast, limestone paving for as the eye could see.

The SWCC library has several books for the region which can be lent out to members (or you can just go buy them), we used the modern Caves of Mid-West Ireland. Although an excellent book it was no replacement to having Pat and Paul dispense local knowledge!

We flew direct to Shannon airport from Heathrow and had hired a car to get around. On Pat’s advice we stayed at the Rainbow Hostel in Doolin which is about 1 hours drive from Shannon airport. The Hostel was an excellent base for exploring the area and they were no strangers to cavers hanging muddy kit out on the washing line in their back garden. A pub called McDermott’s was 30 seconds walk away. Good food, plenty of Guiness and a live band ensured it was packed out every night we went there!

As we flew to Ireland we had minimal caving kit but this did not stop us from visiting several caves. We had arrived in Ireland after a storm which meant the two big systems in the region were essentially off-limits and we were advised to avoid those as they were most likely flooded out. Wasn’t really a big issue as Paul was able to take us to 3 other cave systems.

Cullaun 2

Our first cave was Cullaun 2, an active stream cave located a few miles North East of Lisdoonvarna, this map locates the entrance.

Easy going, no equipment required made for a great first cave in Ireland.

Claire in the streamway of cave Cullaun 2 after recent heavy rain.

Paul our Irish host, Cullaun 2.

Claire admires some of the roof formations, Cullaun 2.

Faunarooska

Our second cave was Faunarooska. This was a bit more tricky to find as Paul’s memory of the location of the entrance was hazy. We actually started a rather cool trip into Hawthorne cave that came to an abrupt end so we exited and then went in search of Faunarooska. Thankfully it was not too far, this map locates it. Again a system that required no extra kit.

Duncan looking out of Hawthorne Cave, the first one we found.

Following the streamway in Faunarooska.

Claire under a curtain in the Faunarooska streamway.

Duncan admiring formations in Faunarooska.

Claire admiring formations in Faunarooska.

No trip to the Burren should be without a visit to one of the two show caves in the region. We went to the Doolin show cave with the ginormous stalactite. The tour guide was suitably humorous and it made for an entertaining trip.

The mighty stalactite, Doolin show cave.

On one of the few days the weather promised to behave we visited the Burren National Park and did the blue Mullaghmore loop. It’s a fairly easy walk with spectacular scenery, definitely worth the effort!

The spectacular Burren National Park.

Poll na gree

Alternative spelling is Poll na grai, was to be our final cave. Similar to the other two caves, linear in nature with an active stream it has been extended. Part of the route is a hands and knees high level traversing. Not as scary as the midnight traverses in OFD but sufficiently worrying that you would not want slip and get wedged in. The end of the first section ends with a ridiculously tight, up-hill, slippy crawl with no hand holds. Needless to say I failed to get past this choke point whilst Claire breezed it. Credit to Paul, he managed to get through and it looked like it took Herculean strength to negotiate the flat-out crawl! (It was the tight U-bend further on that proved arduous).

A muddy Claire having returned from the by-pass to sump 2

An equally muddy Paul. The crawl for sump 2 is very arduous.

Sign identifying cave entrance.

That was it. Our remain day was rained out with us escaping to Galway for some city culture. We barely scratched the surface of the caving scene in Ireland and with stunning scenery and great people, Ireland is a fab place and I can’t wait to go back and may be tick off the large systems. We are indebted to Pat and Paul and hopefully we can return the favour by leading them on some choice trips here in the UK!