Once upon a time, there were two giants. They eached lived and loved on the blustery shores of the Atlantic Ocean. One giant lived in Scotland and the other in Northern Ireland. The giants used huge hexagonal columns and built a causeway to connect their two lands. One day, the Scottish Giant sent word that he would fight the Irish Giant. The Irish Giant, being cunning and sly, developed a plan of attack. Or, a plan of non-attack, as it were. He dressed like a baby and slept on the Irish side of the causeway. When the Scottish Giant arrived, he took one look at the baby Irish Giant and thought, “If that is the size of his baby–there is no way I’m fighting him.” He then turned around and ran back to Scotland, ripping up the causeway as he returned. That is why there is only a bit of the Giant’s Causeway left in Northern Ireland. It looks like a stone peir that has been swept away and there are only a few hundred feet left.
That is the story behind the geological wonder that is the Giant’s Causeway. It is made of hexagonal columns that were pushed up from the earth after a volcano (I think.) A team of mason’s couldn’t have pieced the causeway together more perfectly that the earth found fit to do. It is an area of “outstanding natural beauty” and a place for a wonderful, albeit cold, afternoon. Hayden and I arrived around 3 in the afternoon and had enough sunlight to walk do to the causeway and then back up the mountain on the Giant’s Evil Steep Steps. Evil Steep Steps may not be the proper name, but that it what I’ll call them. I was, however, able to climb the Evil Steep Steps gracefully and without getting too winded. The fact that I am able to move two days later is a miracle.
The Atlantic Ocean is stunning and beautiful. You can’t help but think about the orignial inhabitants. How the steps and paved path weren’t there, but they would have climbed the side of the mountain in heavy wool clothes, carrying fish and weapons. No goretex and Nalgene bottles. No hiking shoes or umbrellas. There is a castle not far from the Causeway, Dunluce, that has partially slipped off the cliff into the ocean.
We left the area at dusk to return to Belfast–in time to see another Giant. The Belfast Giants Ice Hockey team playing the Leicester Blaze.
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