The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

On our October bus tour of Ireland and Scotland we left Dunlace Castle along the Antrim Coast--see my last post--and traveled north towards our next stop: The Giants Causeway.   My husband and I have been fortunate to have visited this beautiful part of Ireland in the past. I've blogged about it here, and here, but we were still fascinated to visit this unusual area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption from 50 to 60 million years ago

Informational placards at the Giant's Causeway site--double-click on the photo to enlarge it to read it.

As in many places in Ireland, there is a myth or legend about the Giant's Causeway, from which it got its name. According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway or path built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two could meet. 

In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realizes that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Sadhbh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him into a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the "baby", he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.

The Causeway Coastal Route in Northern Ireland is rated one of the top five road trips worldwide and it is easy to see why. The road hugs narrow strips of coastline between the sea and high cliffs, between green valleys and gentle hamlets.  The yellow-flowered shrub is gorse which grows wild all along the coast.

The entire Antrim Coast is stunningly beautiful!

Our tour bus then drove to an overview area where we could see the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in the distance. Carrick-a-Rede means the rock in the road. This area near Ballintoy is the sea route for Atlantic salmon on their westward journey past Carrick Island. For over 350 years fishermen had strung a rope bridge 30 meters above the sea to allow them to access the best places to catch the migrating salmon. Today, the bridge is mainly used as a tourist attraction. It presents an exciting challenge to hundreds of thousands of visitors every year!  It was closed at this time of the year, but we were able to walk across it years ago as you can see on this blog post.

An informational placard at the overlook about this part of the Antrim Causeway Coastal Route. Double-click on the photo to enlarge it to read it.

We were now on our way to Belfast where we would visit the new Titanic Museum and the next morning our tour would take the ferry over to Scotland! More on my next post.

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