With the peace walls behind us we said goodbye to Belfast and hello to the scenic trip ahead to Derry. One of our stops was at Giant’s Causeway. First I will tell you one version of the story behind how Giant’s Causeway was created, then I will tell you how it was actually made.
Finn MacCool a great Irish Giant despised the Scottish giants. Finn was so angry and he decided to build a causeway to get to them, that he built from Ulster across the sea to Scotland.
One day he challenge Benandonner, The Red Man, to cross the causeway and fight him. But he soon realised Benandonner was way bigger than he imagined so he ran back home to the Fort-of-Allen in County Kildare, and told his wife what happened. Finn could hear him coming and when he knocked on the door his wife shoved him in the bathtub with a couple of sheets over him.
Finn’s wife, Oonagh, opened the door to and told him Finn was hunting deer in County Kerry but invited him in anyway. She baked a cake of griddle-bread, with the iron griddle pressed inside it so he cracked three front teeth. She gave him meat that was actually jus a strip of fat nailed to a block of red timber so he cracked two back teeth. She then asked if he wanted to see the baby who was actually Finn but after drinking 5 gallons of honey-beer he needed some fresh air.
Oonagh showed Red Man out, the garden with large bolders and told him that Finn throws them over the fort and tries to catch them before they fall. So Red Man tried, but he only lifted it above his head before dropping it, hurting his neck. Red Man decided he had enough and would go home.
Finn then jumped out of the tub, chassing Red Man. When passing Portadown, County Antrim, Finn scooped a huge piece of earth out of the ground to throw, the hole filled up with water and became Lough Neagh. The piece he threw missed and landed in the middle of the Irish Sea and became The Isle of Man. And both giants tore up the Giant’s Causeway, leaving the uneven columns as it is today
In reality, 60 million years ago the tectonic plates separated and from the crack magma oozed through. As the lava came in contact with the ocean and air it cooled and hardened into basalt. This happened again except this time the magma came through cracks forming the honeycomb pattern of the basalt columns. There are over 40,000 columns at the Giant's Causeway, most are hexagons. After millions of years of erosion and lowering sea levels, about 15,000 years ago, the columns began to protrude from the ocean.
Finn MacCool a great Irish Giant despised the Scottish giants. Finn was so angry and he decided to build a causeway to get to them, that he built from Ulster across the sea to Scotland.
One day he challenge Benandonner, The Red Man, to cross the causeway and fight him. But he soon realised Benandonner was way bigger than he imagined so he ran back home to the Fort-of-Allen in County Kildare, and told his wife what happened. Finn could hear him coming and when he knocked on the door his wife shoved him in the bathtub with a couple of sheets over him.
Finn’s wife, Oonagh, opened the door to and told him Finn was hunting deer in County Kerry but invited him in anyway. She baked a cake of griddle-bread, with the iron griddle pressed inside it so he cracked three front teeth. She gave him meat that was actually jus a strip of fat nailed to a block of red timber so he cracked two back teeth. She then asked if he wanted to see the baby who was actually Finn but after drinking 5 gallons of honey-beer he needed some fresh air.
Oonagh showed Red Man out, the garden with large bolders and told him that Finn throws them over the fort and tries to catch them before they fall. So Red Man tried, but he only lifted it above his head before dropping it, hurting his neck. Red Man decided he had enough and would go home.
Finn then jumped out of the tub, chassing Red Man. When passing Portadown, County Antrim, Finn scooped a huge piece of earth out of the ground to throw, the hole filled up with water and became Lough Neagh. The piece he threw missed and landed in the middle of the Irish Sea and became The Isle of Man. And both giants tore up the Giant’s Causeway, leaving the uneven columns as it is today
In reality, 60 million years ago the tectonic plates separated and from the crack magma oozed through. As the lava came in contact with the ocean and air it cooled and hardened into basalt. This happened again except this time the magma came through cracks forming the honeycomb pattern of the basalt columns. There are over 40,000 columns at the Giant's Causeway, most are hexagons. After millions of years of erosion and lowering sea levels, about 15,000 years ago, the columns began to protrude from the ocean.