Located in the Burren National Park in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, the O’Rourke family have been farming there for generations. Burren farm raises grass-fed Hereford and Angus cattle following the traditional methods that have helped shape and preserve the Burren landscape over the centuries. Three years ago, the farm started offering guided tours of the area and developing its agritourism branch. Women in Ag talked to Brónagh O’Rourke about the Burren Farm Experience.
He was a fifth generation farmer who had lived in the Burren all his life. She was a salesperson who had moved to the farm. Until she decided she needed a change.
“After we started a family, we decided that that life was not working for us”, Brónagh O’Rourke says. “My husband Cathal was a fifth generation farmer, and after I had my third daughter I decided I wanted to spend more time being available for my family, so I did a tour guiding course and began looking at how to develop a great tourism offering on our farm, situated in The Burren.”
The O’Rourke family has been farming for over 200 years in the Burren, a Unesco World Heritage National Park in County Clare, Ireland. The 500 acre family farm is located right at the heart of the Burren.
The Burren
The topography of the Burren, which stems from the Irish word “Boíreann” meaning “a rocky place”, is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone. The name could not be more appropriate, since soil cover is rare to non existent in places and the exposed limestone pavement offers an eery landscape.
The smallest of Ireland’s six national parks, The Burren boasts 1500 hectares of mountains, bogs, heaths, (semi permanent) lakes, grasslands and forests but is most renown for its rough, rocky landscapes.
“It’s a lunar landscape”, Brónagh says, “and it looks barren and grey, but in spring and summer it explodes with colours from all the flowers growing here”.
The Burren is famous for its landscapes and flora, combining arctic-alpine flowering plants with Mediterranean plants, lime-loving plants, acid-loving plants and, astonishingly, woodland plants growing in open, sunlit spaces with no trees around to provide any shade. An improbable flora and landscape that the farmers of the area helped shape. Through their farming techniques, the farmers have managed the land in a way that preserves the flora and habitats. The limestone pavements might look barren, but nutrient rich herbs and floral species grow there and the south of the park is mostly composed of an ancient glacial till, managed for pasture and silage.
Brónagh considers the local farmers the custodians of this delicate ecosystem, a responsibility the family takes very seriously. The tradition of transhumance, or moving cattle around for grazing on the rough limestone and heaths around the farm, is a vital component of the region’s biodiversity.
“Our cattle graze the rocks, and flowers grow on them in the summer as a result”.
Combining traditional farming and modern ecotourism
The farm rears calves from 3 weeks old to resell them when they are around 2 years of age. These grass-fed Hereford and Angus cattle graze outdoors year round, since there is grass for 11 months a year in the rich pastures of the area. With the new generation managing the farm, it specialised in bringing their Burren Premium Beef directly to the consumer. The beef, known for its so called “Burren flavour” due to the grazing on limestone pastures, rich in wild herbs and clover, is handled by a local artisan butcher where it is matured for up to 28 days.
The idea to develop an agritourism branch grew organically, through tourists coming up to the farm and asking if they could visit.
“This is an area for tourists”, Brónagh explains, “and people were driving up the lane and saying they’d love to see a traditional, working Irish farm, so we would let them have a look around the farm and let them feed the calves. After a while, we started thinking about doing it professionally.”
Brónagh, with her keen business sense, thought the moment was right when the family planned to redo the old farmhouse. “We though it would be a wonderful opportunity for people to see how the people in the area lived and farmed generations ago, especially since things are not that different now because of the conservation of the area’s biodiversity. In the farmhouse, we can show people how we churn butter, there’s the old fireplace,… It is the starting point of our guided tours.”
Wanting to share the knowledge and passion for the Burren landscape and lifestyle, Brónagh crafted bespoke tours that allow tourists to taste, feel and walk through one of Ireland’s most raw and breath-taking landscapes that stretches to the Wild Atlantic Way.
“The O’Rourke’s trace their family back over 200 years in the Burren. This landscape has shaped them and their life, and has never eroded their love for it. With these tours, we can share their passion for the land, nature and farming of the 500-acre family farm set right at the heart of the Burren.”
The tours are run by Brónagh and Cathal and fit the concept of eco-tourism and their strive to preserve the unique landscape surrounding the farm. The tours, including 5, 8 or 10 kilometre walks, are designed to teach the visitors about the rural life in County Clare and the sustainable farming methods that ensure the continued health and diversity of the Burren.
Cathal, a qualified agricultural expert with a Green certificate, has been farming the land with his dad since he was a small child, until he passed away a few years ago and he and Brónagh, a fully qualified Failte Ireland tourist Guide and Eco Guide, took over. “I am also training to be a Ranger in The National Park, and am doing a course in transformational travel experience. Furthermore, we are members of the Burren Ecotourism Network.”
Tour
A tour at Burren Farm Experience takes about 2 hours, if you don’t count the typical Irish hospitality. “More often as not, we end up chatting over tea in the old farmhouse and if people have the time, they stay for about 3.5 hours”, Brónagh laughs.
Tours start at the old farmhouse, where Cathal and Brónagh explain their personal history of getting on the farm, taking it over and the family tradition. Then, they take their visitors up the land either in a trailer with straw bales or in their antique jeep. “We stop at historical points on the way, we feed the animals that are out grazing and then we go to the chapel which was the first church in the area. The vantage point up there is amazing, with the Burren mountains on one side and Lough Bunny lake on the other.”
The tour then takes the groups to the lake for a shoreside picnic if the weather allows it, before heading back to the old farmhouse where a cup of tea and some home made scones are waiting.
“There’s animal feeding, a picnic or food trails with organic vegetables, locally sourced cheeses, wild oysters and scallops, there’s the limestone pavement, the ancient
forests and the lake. It’s really an easy way to see the Burren without going on a big hike, and definitely a more relaxed way to do it.”
The loosening of covid restrictions has allowed Brónagh to expand the farm’s agritourism branch, offering glamping, yoga on the limestone pavements by the lake, forest bathing and wild cooking with local ingredients and assisted by a personal chef on a fire pit. Wild foraging hikes with a foraging expert allow tourists to learn about and forage seasonal plants. There’s even the possibility to book guided outdoor art workshops on the farm.
“This area is so rich in things that are very important to Ireland”, Brónagh says. “We have the limestone pavements, the lush pastures, the ancient forestry, four national monuments, a round field, and a chapel.” Recently, an excavation on the farm site even uncovered a famine village: an ancient rural village that was emptied of all of its inhabitants following one of the great famines. “A lot of people lived in this area and had to emigrate due to the famine. One time, we’ve had an American visit us whose family history traced back to the generation before Cathal’s on this farm!”
Agritourism for the next generation
For Brónagh, building this agritourism branch by integrating the conservation of the region’s fragile nature with farming, is the way to go forward. Farming has shaped the landscape over the centuries, and it can and should go hand in hand with conserving nature. “Agriculture is everywhere across Ireland, and it’s the reason it’s so green! If us farmers weren’t the custodians of the land, the landscape would be very different.”
Steadily, she is paving the way for her three daughters in hopes they will be able to stay and work on the land like the generations before them. “I am trying to build a sustainable business for my three girls, and maybe farm tourism and showing people what we do here is a better way to do that. This is such a unique and beautiful place, and the O’Rourke’s have done so much back-breaking work here. I would love to see it kept in the family for many more generations to come.”