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The Burren, a distinctive Western Ireland landscape formed during the last ice age when glaciers scraped soil layers off of ancient carboniferous limestone, exposing it to the elements where expansions and rainwater gradually eroded the calcite veins running through the limestone. These channeled veins or "grikes" (as opposed to the sandstone block "clints") have become home to scores of shade- and moisture-loving plants, some of them exotic, sometimes with arctic and Mediterranean species growing side-by-side. The region is also dotted with large glacial erratics left by the receding glaciers.
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The Burren, a distinctive Western Ireland landscape formed during the last ice age when glaciers scraped soil layers off of ancient carboniferous limestone, exposing it to the elements where expansions and rainwater gradually eroded the calcite veins running through the limestone. These channeled veins or "grikes" (as opposed to the sandstone block "clints") have become home to scores of shade- and moisture-loving plants, some of them exotic, sometimes with arctic and Mediterranean species growing side-by-side. The region is also dotted with large glacial erratics left by the receding glaciers.