After our morning excursion to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in Northern Ireland, we made our way down the coast to Giant's Causeway, an area of beauty with natural basalt columns that were a result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The area is a UNESCO World Heitage Site. It has been painted and photographed many times over the years. We received an audio guide tour that told us about the history of the location, the legends about it, and tours and lives of tourist guides in the old days.
The tour started at the top of the hill, outside the new Visitor's Centre, and the first audio guidepoint was here. We had a view looking down a paved road at an oddly-shaped green mounds along the cliffside. Along the sides, we could see some of the oddly-shaped basalt columns disappearing into the sea.
One of the items of interest was pointed out to us by the audio guide. Off to the left and as we were descending the hill to the cliffs is a rock shaped like a camel.
All along the wooden fence on our way down the hill were millions of caterpillars or fuzzy worms that had just hatched and were crawling all over the place. Many had made some sort of webs. Steer clear of the wooden fence by the coast when visiting in early June if you dislike the fuzzy creatures. I did not mind them, but there were so many. The wooden fence was literally crawling with them.
The stone mounds on the way down the hill were interesting and one can easily see that these rocks were a result of a volcanic eruption and had cooled in circular lumps. The audio guide had a piece on this, but I cannot remember what it said about the rocks and their shapes.
As we came around the corner of the mounds, we saw Giant's Causeway unfold before us in all its glory. Quite a few tourists were already climbing over the stones and admiring them.
While we descended and walked toward the causeway. we were told about the legend of the giant who built Giant's Causeway. The giant, Finn McCool, lived with his wife on the coast and learned that he had a rival in Scotland. (The rock formations also appear in Scotland.) The two giants decided to have a fight, so Finn constructed a causeway from large stones to Scotland. While he was on his way to meet the giant, he saw how large he was and ran back home. Finn asked his wife to help him hide, and she disguised him as a baby. When the Scottish giant saw the size of the sleeping baby, he assumed that the father must be much larger and ran all the way back to Scotland, tearing away much of the causeway.
We climbed over the stones, and I took several photographs. The stones are amazing and made out of columns. Some of them are stacked higher than other ones, and these can be climbed upon. The stones finally disappear into the sea with waves crashing up onto them.
The hills above the causeway also have stories about them which relate to the giant's story. An organ and the back of the giant's grandmother can be seen in the hillside. I saw the organ but could not find the grandmother.
One of the trails appears to have been cut out of in between columns of stone. Visitors can walk the causeway trail.
In the giant legend, Finn McCool loses his boot on his run back home from Scotland, after seeing how large his rival is. A boot-shaped rock remains on the beach and is called "the giant's boot", and a photograph is below. A good photo opportunity is to have someone sitting on/inside the boot.
Next, I will be publishing my post and photographs of Bushmills distillery, located just down the road from Giant's Causeway.
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