Aillwee Cave

Our first stop was at Aillwee Cave.  This cave was discovered in 1940 by a farmer who followed his dog into a hole in the ground as it chased a rabbit.  The cave system is quite extensive and carved out of limestone by an underground river.  Its an active cave with growing stalagmites and stalagtites (the guide said the translation of these words meant "thing that drips" and "thing that catches drips" - haha). There were two waterfalls in the cave that were really flowing today because of the rain.  At the entrance, it takes about 2 hours for ground water to filter down to the cave level, but at its deepest point (200 ft underground), it takes several days.  The guide said they have not traced the source of the bigger waterfall.  They believe that its source is an underground lake.  After the cave, we hiked around a bit and took pictures of the beautiful wildflowers (the pink ones are Fushia).