Sieve Elva Quarry Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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One walk, two caches, through a mountain bog with the finest panoramic 360° views on a sunny day. The walk to this cache will take you about 10 to 15 minutes, and if you do the other (Slieve Elva Bog) cache as well, it'll be 20 to 30 min one way.
I would suggest to bring wind- and rainproof gear, a tightly fitting hat (strong winds up there at times!) and some sturdy walking boots as it can get muddy and uneven. The walk is mostly on the gravel road, just the last few metres are on slightly uneven terrain which can also be slippy when wet.
This cache and the other one on this walk (Slieve Elva Bog) are situated on the only bog in North Clare and the Burren area. It is a mountain (Slieve Elva) covered in shale which does not let through water. So, over the millenia, the stagnant water turned the vegetation into a bog. The rest of the area was covered in shale too, before the glaciers scrubbed away that layer of shale and exposed the limestone that the Burren is famous for today. The whole Burren is undermined with caves into which the rain water flows off, so bogs cannot grow there.
This particular area is called Mac's Mountain due to the previous owner of the bog, a MacNamara. It was probably in the 1940's that Bord na Móna opened up the bog for turf cutting. They put in part of the gravel road that you will be walking on, and were most likely responsible for the shed that used to be there to give the workers shelter and a chance to make some tea in the concrete chimney that is still there. If you look carefully, you can see the shed's concrete foundations around it.
After the chimney, go straight ahead when the road turns left, and you'll get to the quarry. Be careful not to slip on the wet stone.
The quarry where the cache is hidden in, came about when they decided to cut the turf on top of the mountain. They used the broken stone to build a safe road.
The landscape to this first cache is mostly dominated by fir trees which have been planted a while ago. It is not very obvious that you are actually walking over bog. The trees were planted here because the land is not suitable for farming. All you can do with it is cutting it for turf, or plant trees for the wood. You will, however, see some cut turf. Please do not remove it as cutting, drying and moving it is very hard work, and somebody paid - not only in sweat - for it!
The view from the top is amazing - that's why I hid the second cache at the end of the road. You can see Connemara to the north, and the hills of the back of the Cliffs of Moher to the south. The Aran Islands are obstructed from the view by the lower mountain. This is an amazing spot for sunsets!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vg zvtug ovgr lbh va gur oryyl...
Treasures
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