Giant's Causeway
UK & IRELAND diary : Day 18 - 24th April 2017
The Giant's causeway is situated in BUSHMILLS, on the Northern coast of Northern Ireland, overlooking the area where the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean converge with the Irish Sea. It is a vast piece of land displaying numerous basalt column and pillars, of various heights, protruding from the floor bed. This phenomenon was an outcome of a volcanic fissure eruption. There are around 40000 such pillars/ columns, scattered all over the place. Most of them are hexagonal in shape, due to a peculiar tectonic plates movement, right after the fissure eruption.
The place came to be internationally recognised after an artist brought it to life in one of his paintings that won an international recognition. Ever since, it has been recognised by UNESCO as a heritage site.
The name "GIANT's causeway" is the outcome of an interesting mythological narrative . Legend explains, than an Irish Giant built this causeway (pathway), as his bridge over the Northern Atlantic and Irish sea, in order to participate in a feudal combat with his Scottish rival at a common point, thus giving the place its name. In another story, seemingly in continuation to the earlier, the wife of the Irish Giant dressed him up as a baby and produced him in front of his Scottish counterpart . The Scottish giant, imagined the dad of this huge child to be even more larger in size. He therefore fled the scene in fear and while doing so, he destroyed the Scottish half of the pathway to ensure that the mammoth doesn't get to him.
A Similar looking "causeway" area is said to be found in bordering parts of Scotland, making this story so believable. History with Mythology can get way interesting, isn't it ?
Our day began at Dublin, continued at Belfast. The next in line was the Giant's causeway. It took around two and half hours to get to Bushmills from Belfast, where the causeway area is located.
Our bus was parked away from the site, in a public parking space. From there, we boarded a Giant's causeway shuttle bus, which took us to the place. The first sight of regular shaped pillars and rocks strewn all over a large piece of land, offering fantastic views of the ocean, came as a pleasant surprise and was a treat to our eyes. We couldn't wait to set foot on the rocks. The guide summarised the history of the place along with some common do's and don'ts in the area, after which the crowd dispersed in different directions. Though it was cold, we quickly got into the rock climbing action. We hopped from pillar to pillar, getting to a topmost point. It was easy, safe, fun and adventurous. An hour of climbing up and down didn't seem to get us tired yet. Our spirits were high.
The hexagonal shaped wonders, really got us amazed. The surfaces had all turned smooth due to years of climbing, may be. The various texture of the formations got us wondering. What a massive earthquake, followed by such rhythmic tectonic plate movement, that must have been, in order to have created such a wonder. It was definitely "one of a kind" experience. We walked around the area, discovering other marvellous formations. No amount of photography could do justice . We wished we could spend an entire day here. Soon we had to return to the shuttle bus to get back to the parking area. Can you believe we found a telephone installed on the foot of a mound. I could rate the entire experience with 5 stars. We continued our journey with a small detour to view the DUNLUCE CASTLE.
The Castle was built in the early 16th century by the family of Macquillan. It was built atop a coastal cliff in Bushmills and lies on the west of Giant's causeway. It lies in complete ruins today and is opened to visitors. One can explore the archeological findings in the old town of Dunluce.
We were happy to view the castle from a distance, where we had a 15 minute stop. The views of the ocean continued to be breathtaking. We then moved on to the eastern side of the Giant's causeway. For further story read BALLINTOY.