Stretching across northern Clare, the rocky, windswept Burren region is a unique striated lunar-like landscape of barren grey limestone that was shaped beneath ancient seas, then forced high and dry by a great geological cataclysm. It covers 250 sq kms of exposed limestone, and 560 sq kms in total.The word "Burren" comes from an Irish word "Boíreann" meaning a rocky place.