The Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway, on the north Antrim coast, has been Northern Ireland's most popular attraction for over 300-years, ever since the Royal Geographical Society first publicized it in 1693 as one of the great wonders of the natural world.
The Causeway consists of about 40,000 extraordinary pillars of basalt rock, mostly hexagonal, clustered together honeycomb-style, their tops forming stepping-stones that lead from the cliff-foot and march down the shore and into the sea. The tallest of these amazing columns is about 40 ft in height, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 ft thick in places. Science informs us that a huge mass of molten basalt was spewed forth onto the shoreline, which when cooled, solidified into these otherworldly crystal forms. The cataclysmic subterranean explosion that caused this to happen was a convulsion in the crust of oceanic tectonic plates, so modern geology informs us, some sixty million years ago.
Of course, this is one version of events. Another is that the giant Finn McCool (Fionn Mac Cumhaill), an Ulster warrior, became infatuated with a female giant living on the island of Staffa, off the Scottish coast. Finn built the giant highway as stepping-stones to ford the waters, meet his love and bring her back to Ulster. Extraordinary to tell, similar columns emerge from the sea at Fingal's Cave on Staffa, and Fingal is the Scottish name for Finn. Difficult to tell which theory is the more believable!
From the Causeway Centre located at the top of the cliff, it is a short walk down to the stones - better by far is the round trip of about 2-miles. The circular walk takes in Weir's Snout, a high promontory from which to view the Causeway below as it ‘steps' out into the sea. Eventually, a flight of 162 steps is reached, at the bottom of which stand the extraordinary stones, many of which have been given nicknames by the guides. Examples are the Organ Pipes, tallest of the columns at some 40 ft; others include Chimney Point, Giant's Granny and the Wishing Well. Those with the name Port-na-Spaniagh refer to the spot where the Spanish Armada treasure ship Girona foundered in September 1588.
In 1842, the writer William Thackeray wrote of the Giant's Causeway "When the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos, this must have been the bit left over - a remnant of chaos".