What They Don't Tell You About Ireland's Geography

Ireland looks like one small green island on the edge of the Atlantic. But underneath those fields, cliffs and stone walls is a landscape shaped by vanished oceans, ancient glaciers, buried forests and rocks almost two billion years old. From Skellig Michael, where monks once lived on the edge of the Atlantic and Star Wars found the perfect location for Luke Skywalker's exile, to wild wallabies hopping around Lambay Island, Ireland is full of geography that sounds completely made up. There are lakes that disappear every summer, rivers flowing beneath the Burren, a sea tunnel through Bull Rock, cliffs almost three times higher than the Cliffs of Moher, and a coastline whose length depends on how closely you measure it. Then there are Ireland's oldest secrets — 1.78-billion-year-old rock on Inishtrahull, ancient footprints left by one of the first animals to walk on land, the 5,500-year-old Céide Fields, and townlands that have been mapping the Irish landscape for more than a thousand years. And beneath it all is something even more remarkable: an island whose land, wildlife and language carry traces of thousands — and sometimes millions — of years of history. 30 insane geography facts about Ireland, from the Atlantic coast to the Irish countryside, Donegal to Kerry, the Burren to Connemara. #ireland #irelandgeography #republicofireland #irelandfacts #irishgeography #geography #geographyfacts #history #historyfacts #facts #interestingfacts #coggnize