Burren Nature Sanctuary

Burren Nature Sanctuary is a visitor centre on the Wild Atlantic Way just outside the picture-postcard village of Kinvara. The site is in the downland of Cloonasee which means 'Meadow of the Fairies.'
We are an interpretive and educational venue for the rich biodiversity and landscape of the Burren, a magical karst region where exotic Alpine, Arctic, Mediterranean and Sub Tropical plants live happily side by side.

The site is a fifty acre organic farm showcasing the Burren habitats; shattered limestone pavement, orchid rich calcareous grassland, organic pasture, Ash and Hazel Woodland and a three acre Turlough (or 'Disappearing Lake') that fills every 12 1/2 hours. The ancient Boreen (or droving routeheavily used up to a hundred years ago for local farmers to bring stock to water at the Turlough) leads you back to the Burren Botany Bubble, the dome shaped exhibit that showcases the Burren Flora.

On the trail you will also pass the stone walls of an abandoned famine village where middens of oyster and mussel shells suggest hundreds of people lived.

The site is in partnership with the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, as a satellite seed collecting site for the Irish Native Seed Bank.

We are a member of the Irish Wildlife Trust and half of the farm has been left to rewild and is home to native wildlife.

You can enjoy a fun day out meeting the farm pets and finding fairies in the Hazel woodland and discover the most fascinating natural landscape on earth.

Our mission is to let nature into people’s hearts where they will instinctively care about it and take action to protect it.