Natural History Imagine a corner of Europe where otters still swim in city rivers.
Imagine an island where you can walk for hours along beaches, or over moors and mountains, without meeting another human being. For the bird-watcher and amateur naturalist, one of the great charms of Ireland is its freedom for the wanderer. The moorlands and mountains are open to the walker for many miles on end, and there are still corners of the west so little visited as to have all the atmosphere of wilderness. A small population, often thinly settled away from the cities, has let Ireland take the natural world very much for granted. There is much less pressure on the countryside than in many more crowded countries.