Travel Day Giants Causeway. Thursday 22 July

Here we are at the Giant's Causeway. There are 40,000 hexagonally shaped basalt columns at this piece of coastline. The columns are believed to be created by volcanic activity approximately 60 million years ago, give or take a few days.

Although if you agree with Gaelic folklore, then the Giant's Causeway, as the name suggests, was caused by Giants. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.

One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him.

To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn 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, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.

The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.
From the causeway, we headed on another 9 miles to our destination of Portrush.