Wednesday 30 September 2009

Wicklow Mountains


The stark landscape that lies between us and the sea.

2 comments:

Adele S. said...

When I see this type of photo, I always wonder why the Irish don't seem interested in planting trees. Or is it that trees were never part of this kind of landscape?

Brian Kaller said...

You know, I wondered that when I first saw the giant stone monoliths that dot the Burren, the stark landscape of the west -- how did they feed the people who built them off this land?

It was only later that I realised that the Burren or the Wicklow Mountains were once a cold rainforest as lush as the jungle -- not millions of years ago, but thousands, before the first of our kind arrived. What happens to the Amazon now happened here then.

When the trees vanished, the soil eroded, and the result is the land today. It could well return to what it was, but only in time.