The Burren, for all its fame in the present day, is still an enigma, a bewildering place; its boundaries are cryptic, its flora famous yet little understood, and the complicated interrelationships that brought about this extraordinary landscape, the links between mankind, flora, fauna and geology, are largely unexplained. Superficial, simplistic impressions, which do the area a disservice, are trumpeted in both tourist and natural history literature – 'a lunar landscape with rare plants!' "