This article is from page 21 of the 2011-06-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
THE Burren is set to become the holiday destination of choice for thousands of Leaving Cert geography students following a new initiative to promote the world-class geology of the North Clare National Heritage Site.
The Burren has already been designated as a special area of study on the Leaving Cert curriculum with dozens of secondary schools already using local businesses such as the Burren Outdoor Activity Centre as part of their study.
It is hoped that a number of new publications on the geology of the Burren, which were launched last week by Clare County Council through the Burren Connect Project, will help drastically increase the numbers coming to the Burren as geological tourists.
“The Burren is one of the main case-study areas on the Leaving Cert geography course and the idea of this is to encourage that and also to encourage more school to visit the Burren as part of their study and to generate a bit of business locally. Quite a number of schools from all over the west already come to the Burren for this and the hope is that we can improve what they get out of the experience and increase the number who visit,” said Ronan Hennessy, geologist with the Burren Connect project.
“We paid a lot of visits to schools which we were putting this together – to test out what the interest was and to see what people knew in the school – and that influenced us greatly in putting together the different publications.”
The booklet will be circulated to school and tourist outlets in the Burren area and will be available for free to everyone on the internet. Geological tourism has been on the increase in the Burren in recent times and is currently seen as a vital part of the area’s new eotourism product.
“This is about raising the profile of the local geology with the businesses who are directly involved with it people like The Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Centre, The Burren Outdoor Education Centre, BurrenBeo, The National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Clare Farm Tourism Co-Op. They were our closest partners on this but the idea is to promote this among all the businesses in the Burren so it becomes a bigger and bigger part of the overall tourism product in Clare,” continued Ronan.
“The hope is to continue to bring businesses together so that when a tourist does come with questions the local people have the knowledge to help them find out the answer. It’s about bringing all the businesses together and having everyone singing off the same hymn sheet,” added Ronan.
These publication have been brought about by the GeoNeed Project, which is an joint Irish, Finish and Icelandic initiative coordinated in Ireland by the Burren Connect Project. For more information or to download a copy of all the publications, visit www.geoneed.org.