A code of practice drafted for visitors to the Burren in Co Clare is calling on them to abandon "the recent fad" for building cairns and dolmens.
The Burren Code 2000, which has been drawn up by the EU-funded Burren Tourism and Environment Initiative in conjunction with landowners and community representatives, will be circulated in hotels, hostels and B&Bs in Clare and Galway so that tourists can be advised on how to behave respectfully towards the limestone landscape. "It may look rugged, but it is a fragile place and is under threat from increased human activity," the code states. It adds that some Burren visitors have adopted the fad for building miniature cairns and dolmens, "damaging the shattered limestone pavements and compromising the natural landscape". "Local people, including schoolchildren spend their spare time on the pavements undoing this damage," the code states. Ms Orla McCarthy, the project manager for the initiative, said the practice had become "a copycat game", largely involving passing motorists who remove stones from either walls or the limestone pavement to build their rock sculptures.
"People are not aware that it is illegal . . . you are affecting the pavement, the vegetation and the seed bed of the distinctive Burren flora," she said.
Although the Burren represents just 1 per cent of the land mass of Ireland, 75 per cent of its native species are found there. Ms McCarthy said that up to now landowners had been liberal in allowing visitors onto their lands but were becoming annoyed at visitors removing stones from boundary walls. These must be kept intact if farmers are to receive full payment under the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS). "The farmers tell us they are out every week rebuilding their walls," Ms McCarthy said.
Protection of the limestone landscape is the central part of the code. It points out that the pavements are being illegally exploited to supply the market for weathered limestone, used in garden rockeries.
"Avoid buying souvenirs or products made of weathered limestone," it says.
It is equally an illegal act under the European Habitats and Species Directive to pick flowers, remove plants or tamper with their habitats, or park on pavement or grassland. "While welcoming visitors and tourists to the region, we want the Burren resources to be preserved at the same time," Ms McCarthy said. The code will be launched on the Burren Tourism & Environment Initiative's website next month at www.theburren.ie.