Sir, - The Australian Wilderness Society has a motto which runs something like this: leave only footprints; take only photographs. In the Burren, Co Clare, tourists are making major changes to the environment with almost every visit.
Behind one of the largest artefacts from prehistoric Ireland, Poulnabrone Dolmen, people come and disturb the fragile ecosystem by dislodging and removing rocks and stones, and building their own little monuments to ignorance. There are no signs warning that wildflowers grow only here in these crevices hewn over millions of years. No wardens protect the stone plateaux to stop them turning into rubble. Unthinking travellers who yearn to leave their own mark of ownership upon the place threaten the very nature of the site they have come to visit. Poulnabrone no longer speaks to us of ancient times long past; it stands amongst small, insignificant piles of rocks and loses most of its meaning in the process.
Over the past 10 years I've been very fortunate to visit the Burren, and Poulnabrone, a number of times. I'm saddened to see the changes, and a little surprised that my efforts to raise awareness of the problem after my last visit last summer have remained unheeded. It seems the Minister responsible does not feel a letter from Australia is important enough to answer, nor do the guide books want to include a warning to their readers that this ecosystem is as fragile as perhaps more trendy environmental causes. Duchas may well be overstretched, but the tiny sign at the base of the Dolmen is barely noticeable, and mentions nothing about leaving the stones as they are.
The purpose of my letter today is to alert people to the problem. As a non-resident I feel writing letters is all I can do, and I write this in the hope that it may bring some pressure to bear on those who can attack the problem in a more practical way. In some ways, my most recent visit last month shows that the section of the Burren immediately behind Poulnabrone has been damaged irreparably, but if awareness is raised widely enough now, perhaps the emergence of these piles of dislodged stones in other parts of the Burren could be prevented. - Yours, etc.,
Geraldine Exton, Holmes Street, Frankston, Australia.