The Cavan Burren Walking Trails

Black Pig Lodge is just a stone’s throw from the start of the UNESCO Cuilcagh Lakelands Global Geopark. This is the first transnational Geopark, straddling County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland and County Cavan, in the Irish Republic. The Geopark is an internationally significant area of geological heritage in terms of conservation, education and sustainable tourism.

The Cavan Burren is one area of the Geopark and is a 30min drive from Black Pig Lodge. It is a prehistoric relict landscape, with striking examples of Neolithic and early Bronze Age megalithic monuments of religious and ceremonial significance. Entrance to the Cavan Burren is free, with free ample parking, toilets and an open-sided Interpretative Centre. It is open all year round. We visited on a misty Boxing Day in 2024. 

There are four well-marked trails which guide you around the Cavan Burren (one of which is wheelchair accessible). The trails are of varying lengths but in total amount to 10km. Two of the trails join up with the Cavan Way (a 26km linear walk from Blacklion to Dowra). Please note that although the Cavan Burren is popular with dog walkers, sadly the Cavan Way is not dog friendly.

The geology – how the present landscape was formed

The landscape itself was formed 340 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. The land then was a shallow tropical sea and over millions of years, the lime rich mud gathered as sediment at the seabed and compacted to form limestone. Clues as to the landscape’s history can be found in the form of fossilised sea creatures. The landscape also has areas of limestone pavements, sinkholes and caves due to weathering by rain. 

13000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, huge sandstone boulders were deposited by glaciers. These ‘glacial erratics’ litter the present landscape.

Also, huge ice sheets scoured through the landscape like sandpaper creating the glacial valley of Lower Lough Erne and Lough McNean.

The Giant’s Grave Wedge Tomb

The first settlers

Once the last Ice Age receded Neolithic settlers arrived (probably from Britain) around 6500 years ago. A remarkable characteristic of this Neolithic culture was the sudden and dramatic proliferation of megalithic monuments, built for religious and ceremonial reasons or as shared burial sites. They demonstrate how important the concept of an afterlife and burial practices were in Neolithic Ireland. The Irish landscape is littered with the remains of these.

The Calf House Dolmen Portal Tomb – the capstone has collapsed on one side

The monuments take several forms, including:

• Court Tombs – these have an open court area which leads to several rectangular chambers. A good example is at Creevykeel in County Sligo.

  
  

• Passage Tombs – these were large mounds of earth often called cairns, with several passages leading to a central chamber. Probably the most striking and well-preserved Passage Tomb in Ireland is Newgrange in County Meath. Nearer to Black Pig Lodge is Maeve’s Cairn atop Knocknarea in County Sligo.

  
  

• Portal Tombs such as dolmens, consist of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat capstone. These would have been covered in earth but over time the large stones have been revealed through weathering. They tended to face East towards sunrise and were nearly exclusively used for cremation. The Cavan Burren has one such Portal Tomb named Calf House Dolmen Tomb, named so as it was later used as an animal shelter during the 19th Century. It is thought to be early Neolithic. 

  
  

• Wedge Tombs, so named because of their wedge shape, narrowing in both height and width at one end (usually West to East). These are thought to be late Neolithic and the Burren Cavan has two impressive examples: The Giants Grave and Tullygobban Wedge Tomb.

There is also a Promontory Fort built during the Iron Age about 2000 years ago as well as a boardwalk through an extant waterfall valley called The Giant’s Leap. 

Rock Art at Cavan Burren

We also spotted Cup Rock Art, small bowl-shaped hollows on the flat surfaces of the rocks. They are found on many of the ‘glacial erratic’ boulders found across the Cavan Burren. They are also known as Atlantic Rock Art, small motifs carved out around 5000 years ago by Neolithic and Early Bronze Age settlers. They are abstract symbols found all along the Atlantic seaboard of Western Europe, from Ireland to Spain and Portugal. No one really knows what they symbolise; perhaps abstract maps of the area showing meetings places. 

If you are interested in geology and prehistory, the Cavan Burren makes for an extremely interesting day out. 

The Geopark has much more to offer including the Cuilcagh 'Stairway to Heaven’ Boardwalk (add link to Blog) and the Marble Arch Caves.