While in Northern Ireland, we had a chance to view Giant's Causeway. And what a spectacular view!! I was, and still am, amazed at the natural wonder of this place.It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns resulting for volcanic eruptions. It is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava on the Earth's surface. It is located on the North East coast about 3 kilometres (2 miles) north of the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The ancient inhabitants knew: clearly this was giants' work and, more particularly, th
e work of the giant Finn McCool, the Ulster warrior and commander of the king of Ireland's armies. It is said that Finn could pick thorns out of his heels while running and was capable of amazing feats of strength. Once, during a fight with a Scottish giant, he scooped up a huge clump of earth and flung it at his fleeing rival. The clump of Earth fell into the sea and turned into the Isle of Man. The hole it left filled up with water and became Lough Neagh.
e work of the giant Finn McCool, the Ulster warrior and commander of the king of Ireland's armies. It is said that Finn could pick thorns out of his heels while running and was capable of amazing feats of strength. Once, during a fight with a Scottish giant, he scooped up a huge clump of earth and flung it at his fleeing rival. The clump of Earth fell into the sea and turned into the Isle of Man. The hole it left filled up with water and became Lough Neagh. 
During the Paleogene period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled rapidly, contraction occurred. While contraction in the vertical direction reduced the flow thickness (without fracturing), horizontal contraction could only be accommodated by cracking throughout the flow. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today.
The "discovery" of the Giant's Causeway was announced to the world in 1693 by the presentation of a paper to the Royal Society from Sir Richard Bulkeley, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; however the "discoverer" had, in fact, been the Bishop of Derry who had visited the site a year earlier. The first historical accounts of the Causeway started appearing in the late 17th century when the Bishop of Derry made one of the first recorded visits in 1692.
Before the famous coast road was built in the 1830s visitors complained about the ruggedness of the trip. But there was one shining compensation on the journey: the town where tourists made their last stop before the final push to the Causeway was Bushmills. Ever since 1608 saddle-sore travellers had been revived with magnums of the King's whiskey at the world's oldest (legal) distillery, which is still in business.
The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea.
Altogether the 40,000 stone columns are mostly hexagonal but some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 40 feet high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 feet thick in places.
One myth is that when Finn fell in love with a lady giant on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides (off the west coast of Scotland), he built this wide extensive highway to bring her across to Ulster.
Other myths include that same Irish giant Finn McCool building the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. But Finn fell asleep before he got to Scotland, and when he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Finn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over Finn and pretended he was actually Finn's baby son (in a variation, Finn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby.)
In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Finn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.
Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner when he arrived, while giving the baby (Finn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway. Maybe it's the romantic in me, believing real love does exist and conquers all... so my favorite legend is Finn McCool building the walkway as a bridge to his one, true love.
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