Today me and my family went to the giant’s causeway and it was the coolest thing so far on our trip. Read on to see what we did.
It was a long walk to the causeway but it certainly paid off when we got there. At first sight we were in total awe. I was dying to run ahead, but as far as family rules go, I wasn’t allowed. After we ran around and took some footage we noticed a trail that went up the mountain and decided to walk it. Once we climbed the hundred-something steps up the cliff we were at the top! To put it in a couple words, the view was phenomenal. The ledge was super steep and there were no fences! Something that would be super illegal not to have in Canada.
So we hiked our way back to the car just as our strength was running out. When we were driving home I was asking myself a ton of questions. How was this thing made? How many pillars are there?
So when got back to our AirBnB I sought to answer all of my questions, and eat dinner…
These are the answers I found.
Q: how many pillars are there?
A: there are about 40,000 pillars.
Q: how was it made?
A: First, volcanic eruptions created layers basalt.
Next, weathering made a valley.
After that, more volcanic eruptions leveled the valley and part of the lava cooled faster than others making pillars deep underground so we could not see them.
Then, a glacier shredded the top layers of exposing the now sharp jagged edged pillars.
Finally, the ocean dullened those edges making the Giant’s Causeway what it is today.
Q: how long ago was the Giant’s Causeway made?
A: 50-60 million year ago.
This video explains it in better detail: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/giants-causewayc/features/video-how-to-build-a-causeway#
Mythologically, the Giant’s Causeway was a bridge to Scotland. Irish giant Finn McCool wanted to fight Scottish Giant, Benandonner because of an argument. Finn made the Causeway to fight him hand to hand. When he got to Scotland, he noticed Benandonner was bigger than Finn by a ton, so Finn went back to Ireland and made a new plan. The plan was that his wife would dress him up so that he looked like a baby. So when Benandonner crossed the causeway he would see Finn’s wife and their pretend baby that was actually Finn. Benandonner would see the size of the baby and assume Finn was enormous. He would run back to Scotland and never argue again. The plan worked and as Benandonner was running away he broke parts of the bridge and that’s why we can’t walk to Scotland from Ireland today.
So this concludes my short text on the Giant’s Causeway. I really hope you go there because it’s a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks for reading.