Heart of Burren Walks

Heart of Burren Walks offers guided walking tours through the Burren, the distinctive karst landscape of County Clare in the west of Ireland. The walks are led by Tony Kirby, a local guide and author, who accompanies visitors across the region’s bare limestone pavements and explains the natural and human history written into the terrain.

Rather than straightforward hikes, the walks are designed to interpret the Burren’s geology, its unusual mix of Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants, and thousands of years of farming, archaeology and folklore. Along the way walkers encounter classic features of the glaciated karst, including limestone pavement, sinkholes and dry-stone walls, as well as the tombs, monastic sites and other traces of the people who have lived and worked here.

The company runs scheduled group walks in the main season, alongside tailor-made and themed outings, pilgrimage walks and schools’ programmes, with tours generally available by appointment. Scheduled walks typically last up to around three hours, while custom walks can be arranged over a longer or shorter period to suit a group’s interests and pace.