NORTHERN IRELAND: THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY

 July 10, 2024

The Giant's Causeway is a geologic rock formation formed by an erupting volcano 50 or 60 million years ago. The molten basalt seeped through chalk beds to form a volcanic plateau, and as the lava cooled, it cracked, much as mud does when it dries, leaving about 40,000 mostly hexagonal interlocking stones.

According to legend, these columns are the remains of a land bridge, or causeway, built by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhail and the Scottish giant Benandonner so that they could meet in the middle and fight it out.  The Scottish end, which supposedly looks like the Northern Irish end, is called Fingal's Cave.

This early-19th century poem presents a slightly different motive behind building the causeway:

THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY

They met beside the stormy sea, those giant kings of old,
And on each awful brow was set, a crown of burning gold.
No ray the yet unrisen stars, or the wan moonbeams, gave,
But far and bright, the meteor light shone over cloud and wave.

"I have been over earth to-day," exclaimed one mighty king,
"The toil of half the human race, it is a foolish thing;
For I have seen on Egypt's land, an abject million slave,
To build a lofty pyramid above their monarch's grave.

"Now let us put their works to scorn, and in a single night
Rear what would take them centuries, and nations' banded might,"
Then up arose each giant king, and took a mighty stone,
They laid the quay; they piled the rocks—ere morn the work was done.

Vain fable this! yet not so vain as it may seem to be,
Methinks that now too much we live to cold reality;
The selfish and the trading world clips man so closely round,
No bold or fair imaginings within our hearts are found.

So vortex-like doth wealth now draw, all other feelings in,
Too much we calculate, and wealth, becomes almost a sin;
We look upon the lovely earth, and think what it may yield;
We only ask for crops, not flowers, from every summer field.

The mind grows coarse, the soul confined, while thus from day to day
We let the merely common-place eat phantasie away:
Aye, better to believe, I trow, the legends framed of old—
Aught—anything to snatch one thought, from selfishness and gold.

-Leticia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838)

The Giant's Causeway was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986. In 2005, a poll named the Giant's Causeway the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.

We arrived at the visitor center and left our car in the parking lot, for which we had prepaid about $40. That included access to the visitors center (and the bathroom, which made it worth every penny). 

The visitors center had some great displays.

From there, tourists can walk to the causeway, which takes about 20 minutes, but we opted for a shuttle bus that took us down the switchbacks to the site. We were grateful that we didn't have to walk as it was raining--not hard, but hard enough. The shuttle dropped us off at the waterfront, where my first impression of the geometric shapes and smoothness of thousands of interlocking stones was that it looked like a landscape architect's finest work.  Moving around on them in the rain with no cover anywhere was a challenge. 

That's me in the photo below right, grateful for my hooded rain jacket and wishing I had gloves.

Bob doesn't look nearly as cold as I do.

We followed some of the other tourists away from the sea and up a slope on the very slippery stones . . .

. . . and came upon these improbable rock stacks that looked something like a game of Stone Age Jenga. Pull one stone and the rest will come tumbling down. Yikes. 

It was too cold and wet to venture much farther, so we turned around and headed for the shuttle.

When I pictured the coast of Northern Ireland in my mind before our trip, this is just what I saw--rugged, windy, cold, damp . . . and green. Somehow always green.

Time to head to Belfast, another of the many places I never thought I would be able to visit. 

By the way, on drives like these, snack choices are important, and we had some good snacks. I definitely recommend these!