Emerald heart: a guide to Ireland’s six national parks

Fringing remote islands and the wild Atlantic coast, steeped in legend and home to exotic flora, these protected areas are a hiker’s paradise

The Burren is a park within a park, part of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Unesco global geopark. But this lunar landscape on Ireland’s Atlantic coast is also a living geological and cultural museum. The park’s most significant landmark is Mullaghmore, a time-sculpted barren hill that lures visitors in search of a spiritual reboot. Its shades of pewter and pearl are whipped with smooth ringed contours that never fail to reflect the day’s mood. In the sunshine, it’s near brilliant; as the sun sets over Loch Gealain and ricochets off its still, crystal-clear surface, it flares up in hues of copper and coral.