Our first stop and the major one for the day is at Giant’s Causeway. It is a World Heritage Site and we liked the photos we have seen so we wanted to make sure we are able to visit it. There is a one mile walk to the Causeway from the parking lot and we decide to go on foot down and return back via the bus, which costs extra.
On the way as we reach the ocean elevations we can actually walk to the seashore…as long as we can avoid the bog.
After a leisurely walk we arrive at the end of the paved road where the bus unloads and loads passengers. Here is also where the Giant’s Causeway starts in earnest and most visitors are concentrated.
We start exploring the interesting formations and are quite amazed by them. There are over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns here and even though we rationally know they were the result of a volcanic eruption we can see how the first people here created legends to explain the appearance of the stones.
And what is the legend? As the name implies the legends are telling us that the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn 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 giants could meet. However when Fionn realises that his foe is much bigger than he is he hides from Benandonner.
Specifically his wife disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the “baby”, he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants and flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down.
This story was likely influenced by the fact that across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) on the Scottish isle of Staffa making the story more credible.
True legend or not the area is beautiful and we walk around for some time while waiting for the next bus and enjoying the cloudy but dry weather.
The bus delivers us safely at the top and after a staring contests with the local cows we are on our way again.
Next stop that we planned is at Dunluce Castle not that far away. However here it is pouring outside so we decide to view the castle only from the car and not walk to it. It looks very impressive and maybe another time we will be able to visit it again, properly.
