The Giant’s Causeway……... what an interesting name. Knowing that Ireland is one for legends and
myths, this is perfectly understandable.
The giant, Finn McCool carved out the coast and left behind the ancient
folklore for us to enjoy, and that we do.
We are off to see the sights.
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Giant's Causeway Path
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Science may have another explanation for these intriguing
shapes of rocks. Approximately 60
million years of cooling and shrinking of successive lava flows have created over
40,000 interlocking basalt columns. The
Giant’s Causeway has been designated a UNESCO World’s Heritage Site, and
deservedly so. It was amazing to see.
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Amazing rock formations
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There are miles of beautiful scenery that are all part of
the Giant’s Causeway that we did not see, other than photos.
We were limited in time as we were on a coach tour but also the weather was making it a bit difficult. The rain and wind made it almost impossible to
use the camera, especially when the umbrella kept turning inside out! The photos do not do it justice but hopefully
you can see what nature provides in Northern Ireland.
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Geological activities results
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We had trails that were hills and rock steps which wasn’t
making it easy for us ‘old folks’, especially fighting the wind. They do have shuttle service for the first
part of the Causeway, which took visitors as far as we were to go given the
time but we chose to walk to take photos. The Grand Causeway was a short distance from
the Visitor Centre given the trails available but it could take hours to walk
the complete Causeway.
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Columns at Giant's Gate
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This is at the Giant’s Gate, which shows the depths of these
shaped columns. The path continues and
somewhere in this neighborhood is where they film some of the Game of
Thrones shows. That can be included in the
tour but we’re two of the very few who have never seen that show so no need to
visit their site.
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Visitor's Centre
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Arriving back to the Visitor’s Centre was when we recognized
the significance of the building with structure resembling the Giant’s column
formations! How clever and it also
includes a grass roof. Inside they have
a large video screen that shows the mythical story of the Giant and how the
Causeway happened, fun for kids to see.
A very nice gift shop, as all sights have, but with plenty of
interesting information.
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Shores of the North Channel
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Plenty of beautiful shoreline to see. Another stop on the tour was the swinging bridge that I
wasn’t really looking forward to crossing.
Still plenty of wind and some rain on this one kilometre walk, although
it felt a lot farther than that!
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Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
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I’ve never been able to cross a swinging bridge easily. I have done it but with great difficulties
and maybe even some bad language. I
didn’t go to Ireland thinking I would cross this swinging bridge after seeing some promo
pictures of it but once we were there, my thought was that I would make it
happen. Why would we go all the way and
not cross that swinging bridge?
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Proof of crossing
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And I did!! Woohoooo!
It was worth it, and I was so glad I did
it. Keith stayed back to get this proof
shot of me, and kept the others back so I didn’t get the ‘swinging’ part of the
crossing which is the worst of it. In
all fairness, it is a very sturdy bridge without a lot of swing but I saw other
faces that showed they felt the same as I did.
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| Leading us back |
I got a 'High 5' from the swinging bridge gatekeeper before my
shaky knees took us back to the coach on more hills and rock steps to climb. We had one hour when leaving the coach to do
the swinging bridge and return, we were one of the last to get back, and likely
the oldest but we made it!
We were on the lookout but during our visit, we did not see
one leprechaun. Where could they
be?
Click here to see the sights of Belfast.
