Q 01/05

Which 1980s fantasy film used the Cliffs of Moher, beside the Burren, as its Cliffs of Insanity?

A) The NeverEnding Story

B) The Dark Crystal

C) The Princess Bride

D) Ladyhawke

Answer · why

C) The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride. The Cliffs of Moher stand in for the Cliffs of Insanity, though almost all the rest of the film was shot in England, much of it in...

Q 02/05

What does the Irish name Boirinn, from which "Burren" comes, mean?

A) Grey plain

B) Land of caves

C) Fertile rock

D) Rocky district

Answer · why

D) Rocky district

Rocky district is the sense of the Irish boireann, which dictionaries gloss as rock or rocky country. Medieval monks took a kinder view: they named th...

Q 03/05

Pol an Ionain, a show cave on the Burren's western edge, is famed for one of the world's longest what?

A) A stalagmite

B) An underground river

C) A stalactite

D) A rock arch

Answer · why

C) A stalactite

A stalactite: the Great Stalactite hangs free from the roof of its chamber. Two cavers found it in 1952 after a long, difficult crawl.

Q 04/05

Which island group is a geological extension of the Burren's limestone hills?

A) The Blasket Islands

B) The Skelligs

C) Achill and Clare Island

D) The Aran Islands

Answer · why

D) The Aran Islands

The Aran Islands belong to County Galway, but their rock is Clare's: the Burren's limestone runs on under the sea and resurfaces as the islands' fissu...

Q 05/05

In which geological period did the Burren's limestone form as sediment in a tropical sea?

A) Carboniferous

B) Jurassic

C) Cretaceous

D) Devonian

Answer · why

A) Carboniferous

Carboniferous. Well over 300 million years ago this part of Ireland lay just south of the equator under a warm, shallow sea, and the shells and corals...