Giant’s Causeway
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History The Giant’s Causeway (295445), 12 km. E. of Portrush and 15km. W. of Ballycastle, is Northern Ireland’s most famous sight. The Causeway proper is only part of its attraction. The 6 km of sheer cliffs, rising to over 90 m. and forming a series of bays, are spectacular. The National Trust has provided a coastal path about 8 km. long from the entrance to the Causeway to beyond Dunseverick, near Whitepark Bay. A small bus takes visitors down to the Grand Causeway.
Ever since a Dublin spinster’s realistic sketches publicised the Giant’s Causeway in 1740 it has been a magnet for visitors to Northern Ireland. Scene at the Causeway Stones.
This attraction was heightened, however, in 1986 by the completion of an interpretive Centre which attempts to explain the geological enigma of the Causeway and other mythical legends associated with it. The Centre includes a theatre in which a lively and colourful audio visual programme explains the volcanic origin of the Causeway and also suggests that a legendary Irish giant, Finn MacCool undoubtedly had a hand in its creation.
Other facilities in the new building, include a tourist information centre, three souvenir shops and a 90 seat restaurant.
The privately owned Causeway Hotel is situated alongside the Centre. People on the Stones.
The Grand Causeway is an astonishing complex of basalt columns packed together, whose tops form ‘stepping stones’ leading from the cliff foot and disappearing under the sea. Similar columns appear on the island of Staffa, in the Hebrides: hence the legend that this was a road built by the giant Finn MacCool to enable him to cross over to Scotland.
Over the Causeway as a whole, there are about 37,00Q of these stone columns, mostly 6-sided, but some 4, 5, 7 and 8 sided. They were formed about 60 million years ago by the cooling and shrinking – along regular lines of force – of molten lava from a vast volcanic eruption that formed the Antrim plateau. The tallest columns, in the Giant’s Organ, are 12m. high. But the solidified lava in the cliffs is at places 24m, thick. Light-coloured patches in the cliffs are the residue of bubbles in the boiling lava. Plant fossils show that the lava erupted over vegetation and that the climate of Ireland was semi-tropical. In addition to the Grand Causeway and the Giant’s Organ, other formations are called: The Honeycomb, The Wishing Chair, The Giant’s Granny, Lord Antrim’s Parlour, The King and his Nobles, The Keystone, The Chimney Pots, The Fan, The Punchbowl, etc. (The National Trust Guide is necessary to find these). At the west end of the cliffs Portcoon Cave is a large sea cavern which may be entered from the landward side and has striking underwater colour reflections. Runkerry Cave, 0.5km. west of Portcoon Cave, is over 200m. long but only accessible from the sea.
The Causeway’s fame has been increased by the discovery – and recovery – at Port na Spaniagh in 1967 and 1968, of the most valuable treasure ever found in a Spanish Armada wreck. The galleass Girona, the biggest ship in the Armada, was wrecked in that jagged gulf in a storm on the night of October 26th, 1588, with only five survivors out of the 1,300 men aboard her. The Girona carried not only her own treasure but also what the Spaniards had been able to save from two other Armada ships wrecked earlier on the west coast of Ireland. People on the Causeway Stones.
Nearly 10,000 objects were brought to shore by a team of Belgian divers led by M. Robert Stenuit of Brussels. The treasure included 400 gold and 750 silver coins; gold jewellery, pendants, rings and cameos containing inset rubies and pearls; eight solid gold chains; silver forks and spoons; the ship’s anchor, cannons and cannon balls. The most beautiful and valtiahle items are now on permanent display in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. The story is narrated on picture-boards at the Causeway.
Europe’s first hydro-electric tram, which ran between Portrush and the Giant’s Causeway, was officially opened in 1883. It was affectionately referred to as the toastrack bçcause of its quaintly shaped carriages and for many people the leisurely journey around the coast on the tram was the highlight of their holiday.
The main line was closed in 1949 due to financial difficulties but the, link from Bushmills to the Causeway, opened .in 1887, was the last section to close, but it was finally abandoned in 1951.
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Source of above text:
Giants Causeway Visitor Centre / Histry of Giant’s Causeway
June 2009
