This weekend we went to Northern Ireland, primarily to go to Giant's Causeway which is a UNESCO world heritage site. My guide book says that according to Irish folklore the Causeway was build by a giant named Finn mac Cumaill who was the leader of the Fianna warriors. Finn mac Cumaill built the Causeway so that a rival giant in Scotland named Benandonner could come to Ireland and they could settle things giant-to-giant. As Brenadonner crossed the Causeway, Finn saw that he was very large. Finn, scarred that he was going to get a pounding, ran home to his wife and asked her to hide him so she put him in a cradle and disguised him as a baby. When Benandonner came to the house and saw the size of the baby, he did not want to hang around to meet the father. Benandonner fled home tearing up the Causeway as he went so that his rival could not follow. Similar features are found on the island of Staffa in northern Scotland.

Giant's Causeway is on the northern tip of Northern Ireland. The very cool rocks have formed from cooling lava ~20 million years ago. The guide book published by the National Trust suggests that it is analogous to drying mud. Cooling of surface lava caused cracks that branch in three directions. This gives the unique shapes you can see in the picture above. As the lava continued to cool, the cracks continue in the same shape to give columns of lava seen below.

These pillar of basalt rock also crack perpendicular to the column. So that you have a sense of scale, Bryan is 6'6". The pictures above were taken near the water so the pilars are much smaller than pillars found on neighbouring cliffs due to erosion.


This feature is known as 'the organ', because it resembles the pipes of a pipe organ. For scale, there are a couple of people in white who are visible on the pedestrian path that bisect this picture. This picture was taken from the Grand Causeway across a bay called Port Noffer which translates as The Giant's Port.

This is 'the organ' up close. Horizontal cracking in the pillars is clearly visible in this picture.

This is a view across Port Noffer. The stikie-uppy bits in the center of the photo are called 'the chimney tops'.

This is in a bay called Portnaboe (The Cow's Port). The formation in the middle looks is called The Camel's Back. Some people refer to it as the Giant's Camel. The little white dots on the top of the cliff are sheep, I am pretty sure they out number people about 5 to 1.


This is a nice bar/restaurant called The Nook. It is located at the entrance just outside of the main park entrance. The bus we took dropped us off here. It used to be an old school house. We had lunch and a snack here.