Giant's Causeway

The Giant’s Causeway is an unusual and spectacular geological formation nestled beneath the sea cliffs of the north Antrim coast. This bizarre, other-worldly structure consists of around 40,000 black, polygonal basalt columns protruding from the sea. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead outwards from the cliffs and eventually disappear under the sea.

It is not hard to understand, on seeing this striking landscape, how it has long featured in Irish myth and folklore. The most famous legend, which has survived from pre-literate history via the oral tradition of storytelling, is that the rocks are the work of the giant Finn McCool, Ulster warrior and chief commander of all Ireland’s armies, who built a highway to reach his sweetheart in the Scotland island of Staffa (or, in another version of the story, so that he could challenge a rival Scottish giant known as Benandoner).

Geological studies of the Giant’s Causeway suggest that the rock formation was caused by volcanic activity during the Tertiary period, around 50–60 million years ago.

The Giant’s Causeway is Northern Ireland’s top tourist attraction, and only World Heritage Site, having been designated as such by UNESCO in 1986.