Winter in the Burren

Winter in the Burren is usually a very mild affair. Temperatures rarely drop below freezing; frost and snow are a rarity. Responsible for that are the Gulf Stream that keeps Ireland considerably warmer than its latitude neighbours and the heat storage capabilities of the limestone.

This mild climate however doesn’t necessarily mean good weather. Apart from comfortable temperatures Burren winters mean the frequent arrival of low-pressure systems that bring gales and storms, often accompanied by heavy rain or hail and thunderstorms. When the wind eventually abates it leaves the Burren with what is known as a grand soft day. It is rain and drizzle so fine you don’t realize it’s there until you are soaked to the skin. It leaves the landscape coated in a damp cloth and makes the warm colours of winter glow. On occasion when a high-pressure system drops by there is a little frost at night and dense fog during the day. And very rarely there is a blue-sky day and the grey Burren hills, along with everybody else, enjoys some glorious winter sunshine.

Sometimes however these weather patterns are turned upside down. In the winters of 2009/10 Ireland got caught in an unprecedented cold snap and not even the Burren did escape. For weeks the landscape was covered in hoar frost, lakes and turloughs froze over and life came to a standstill. Impassable roads got people stranded at home with no or limited water supply due to frozen pipes and keeping houses warm became a real challenge. But these problems became a bit easier to bear when looking at the scene outside. Blankets of mist and fog were whirling around the hilltops while the winter sun was shining from a blue sky, casting its soft light over a wonderland of frost and ice. I rarely have seen the Burren in such beauty.

The ice and snow eventually disappeared and the Burren got back to its usual winter self: The dark, wet limestone drying in the westerly gales and the warm brown and yellow tones of shrubs and meadows glowing in the winter twilight.