An abandoned cottage near Kilfenora.

Kilfenora is the village which sports the Burren interpretive center for visitors.  It is in a very out-of-the-way place, well off the N67 (which O'Ronnie probably traveled between Ennistymon and Lisdoonvarna on her way to Ballyvaughan.)  This abandoned cottage caught our eye as we drove from Ennistymon to the centre after our visit to the Cliffs of Moher.

We saw hundreds, if not thousands, of such abandoned, modest cottages all over Ireland -- usually fairly close to new, much bigger modern houses.  The enormous change in the lives of the Irish people that has been worked by the Republic's long economic boom is nowhere so evident as it is in housing.