'Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad?, Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár
(‘What will we do in the future without wood. The end of the woods has come’)

Clare has many archaeological and mythical connections to Celtic and Druidic Ireland. The Celts had a profound respect for the environment and its natural cycles.There is much to learn from their concept that humans and mother nature were one.

Poulnabrone Dolmen (3,800 BC) in The Burren is a megalithic tomb, where celtic rituals took place. Nearby at Kilnaboy there is a sheela-na-gig, an ancient fertility carving of a naked woman with exposed genitalia on the wall of the church.

St Bridget was ‘Abbess of Kildare‘ and is seen as the Goddess of Knowledge and Life. According to the Rennes Dinnsenchus (Celtic text), “she was a Ban-druÍ, a female Druid, before she converted to Christianity". In Celtic Ireland, many women had more equality under the law and in day-to-day life, as they were seen to be more directly connected to mother nature. Clare is also full of holy wells, about 40 in total with different cures on offer.