Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre and Cliffs Exhibition (Ireland)

There are four things about the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre and Cliffs Exhibition that made an early-morning visit especially interesting for me.

1) The Geology

Look at those layers. That’s 300 million years of bands of sediment upon sediment, of sandstones, siltstone, mudstone, and shale. Stunning.

Consider the fossils. I love how the visitor walkways up the hill are paved with flagstones showing the squiggly trails of small marine creatures, plus fossilized wave ripple marks from the ancient sea floor.

A very neat surprise is that inside the exhibition dome, presented without too much fanfare, is a working seismometer, installed in 2012 (which Jonathan deBurca Butler describes in the Irish Examiner as looking “like a mixture of very a small spinning machine and an elaborate clothes hanger.”) Here’s what we learn from the descriptive panel nearby, entitled “Moving Earth.”

Seismometers operate on the principal of inertia, i.e. a body at rest will tend to remain that way unless a force is applied to make it move. An ideal seismometer would be a mass floating just above the ground. When the ground moves the mass remains stationary. We then directly measure the relative motion between the ground and the floating mass – which will tell us precisely the motion of the ground caused by seismic waves, generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or even people passing by.

Records of seismic waves allow seismologists to map the interior of the Earth, and locate and measure the size of these different sources.

You can see our seismometer below in the glass case. The brass weights act as the mass.

Historically this motion was recorded by pens moving against a rotating drum.

Nowadays the seismic signal is digitised with data being recorded and analysed by computer. This enables seismologists to use the internet to exchange data in realtime and create vast ‘virtual networks’ of seismic stations that span the globe and be automatically analysed to provide near instantaneous warnings after large events.

From the panel: "Here’s an example of some of the movement we record here on site – you may notice the difference between the types of waves caused by people and those of an earthquake." — From the panel: “Here’s an example of some of the movement we record here on site – you may notice the difference between the types of waves caused by people and those of an earthquake.”

2) The Architecture of the Visitor Centre

The new visitor centre, opened in 2007, is a tour de force. Hidden away in the hill to avoid spoiling the view, it’s a beautiful space. The descriptive panels say:

Under the auspices of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) a national architectural contest is staged by the local authority, Clare County Council, to find a design for a new visitor centre at the Cifffs of Moher. In 1992 the contest is won by Cork firm Reddy O’Riordan Staehli Architects (RORSA) with an innovative design that sees the visitor centre hidden beneath the hillside to reduce any visual impact on the visitors’ view of the Cliffs.

In June 2005 many years of project development by Clare County Council results in the start of construction of a new visitor centre and cliff side infrastructure at the Cliffs of Moher. The updated design of the sunken building takes 20 months to build and on the 8th February 2007 the new Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience is officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD. A new visitor management and education plan accompanies the new facilities.

Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre. Other people have described the building as like a Hobbit house and ... yes. In a very good way. — Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre. Other people have described the building as like a Hobbit house and … yes. In a very good way.

2) The Spanish Armada Connection

First alerted to the 1588 shipwrecks of the Spanish Armada in Ireland at the Clare County Museum, I was delighted to see this panel in the Cliffs Exhibition referring to the Armada ships having been spotted by a lookout atop the Cliffs of Moher.

I’ve been trying to figure out why this Spanish Armada connection is so intriguing to me. Perhaps it’s because this is English – or specifically London-y – history (remember Queen Elizabeth’s rousing speech to the troops at Tilbury), my ~~obsession~~ strong interest, brought to life in a place I hadn’t expected it

A descriptive panel in the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre about the Spanish Armada sighting in 1588

4) The Danger and Human Nature

The Cliffs remain kinda terrifying. The Cliffs Experience and staff do all they can to warn people not to stray off the official path. And yet, people do. See Thousands Risk Their Lives Every Year Along Cliffs of Moher Trail in the Irish Times. The closeness to death is similar to that at Niagara Falls. A pull, maybe due to something in human nature to push our limits … dunno. Anyway, terrifying.

Signs at Cliffs of Moher ~ stay on the path!

Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre and Cliffs Exhibition is museum no. 74 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).