Richard Hearns | The New York Times | Mention

Warren Berger, The New York Times, October 6, 2025

Drawn by a Vast Rocky Landscape on Ireland’s West Coast

 The first time I walked alone in the Burren, a vast region on the west coast of Ireland, I got lost. Coming up a mountain path, I somehow wandered onto a desolate ledge, where I found myself in a standoff with a pack of wild Irish goats. The shaggy beasts didn’t seem inclined to make room for me, so I reversed course — which led me down into a valley where I came upon a 2,000-year-old stone fort (ancient forts and tombs abound in the Burren). I then climbed back up a different path, ascending to a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Through the years, Irish poets such as William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney have waxed lyrical about the Burren. The priest-turned-bestselling-author John O’Donohue — born and buried in the area — wrote and spoke extensively about its inspirational qualities. O’Donohue told one interviewer that this rocky canvas “was always waiting for me like a huge invitation to extend your imagination.”
 

In recent times, that invitation has been accepted by artists from around the world. The abstract painter Richard Hearns, the documentary filmmaker Katrina Costello and the singer- songwriter Luka Bloom told me that soon after visiting and spending time in the Burren, they decided to live and work there. Creativity is in the air — though people insist it’s also in the rock.

 

My own interest in the Burren as a creative haven was stirred by a local pub owner. A few years ago, as my wife and I were driving north from the Cliffs of Moher, we stopped at Curtin’s Roadside Tavern in the Burren town of Lisdoonvarna. The proprietor, Peter Curtin, told us the Burren had inspired well-known authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien (some dispute this, but Tolkien did spend time in the area — and there are striking similarities between his Middle Earth and the Burren’s misty mountains and underground caves).

 

I decided to do my own deep dive into the Burren’s creative mystique, spending a week there last year. I came away from that brief stay with a fully formed idea and a half-written proposal for a book about how exposure to certain natural settings, including but not limited to, the Burren can fuel creativity.

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