Giants Causeway Tour

The Giants Causeway Tour is a World Heritage site, National Nature Reserve and Northern Ireland's primary and most visited tourist attraction. The site is managed by the Moyle District Council as well as the great National Trust. Consisting of fifteen miles of walkway paths and ocean coastlines, there is a need for maintenance of this beautiful site. Giants Causeway Tour is a must see for any lover of natural history.

Giants Causeway: Northern Ireland Scenic Attraction

Ancient volcanic activity caused the formation in the area known as the Giants Causeway. It consists of around forty thousand basalt columns. The point of interest is located in County Antrim about 2 miles north of Bushmills. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986. The Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland named the location as a National Nature Reserve in 1987. According to a reader's poll in 2005, the site is considered the United Kingdom's fourth greatest natural wonder.

Mostly hexagonal columns lead from the foot of nearby cliffs and onward to the edge of waves and then into the water where they disappear. A few columns have eight, seven, five or four sides. They vary in height, with the tallest being about 36 feet in height. The lava flow that formed the is as much as 80 feet deep in places.

There are several variations to the legends related to the area. One popular version has the Irish warrior Finn McCool building the causeway so that he could walk across the seas to Scotland. There, he planned to fight the Scottish warrior Benendonner. Supposedly Finn didn't make it to Scotland and Benendonner decided to come after the Irish hero. Finn's wife Oonagh assisted her husband in disguising him as an infant. When Benendonner saw the size of the infant, he was terrified, assuming that the father of such a child must be a giant indeed. Benendonner fled back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway behind himself so that the Irishman could not follow.

Another version of the legend has Oonagh giving a stone painted to look like a steak to Benendonner and giving a normal steak to the "infant" McCool. Again the Scottish warrior sees the baby eating a steak easily, while he is unable to eat it. Thus, Benendonner reasons the infant's father must be very large and strong in order to have fathered an infant who is much stronger than a full grown warrior.

Across the waters in Scotland, there are basalt formations that are part of the same volcanic activity at a site called Fingal's Cave. This is located on the Isle of Staff. Although these basalt columns are an awesome spectacle, they are by no means the only such formation of basalt in the world. Similar formations can be seen in Mexico, Scotland, Iceland, South Korea, Armenia, Sicily, California, Wyoming, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, The Azores, Russia, Nambia, Romania, India and Nigeria.

Today, the Causeway is under the management and ownership of the National Trust. A new visitor's center is being constructed on land where the previous center burned down in 2000. It is expected to be completed by late 2011. Without question, the Causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland. Previously, the visitor's center was under private ownership and management. Funds for the new center owned by the National Trust are being provided in part from proceeds of the National Lottery.

Because some of the rocks have become quite weathered and have broken off, the formations of the broken stones can appear as other objects in and around the Causeway. For example, the Giant's Boot, The Organ, The Giant's Eyes, The Camel's Hump, the Giant's Gate, the Chimney Stacks, The Giant's Harp, the Honeycomb and the Shepherd's Steps. These formations and the causeway itself are now open to the public so that visitors can walk out across the columns to the sea. The commercial vestiges have now been removed from the site so that visitors can enjoy the natural formations without the eyesores of signs and booths.

Although the site of the Causeway was announced in 1693 by Sir Richard Bulkeley in a paper presented to the Royal Society, the site was actually discovered the Bishop of Derry who visited the site in 1692. Dublin artist Susanna Drury created watercolor paintings of it in 1739 which won her an award. Engravings created from Drury's work appeared in the French Encyclopedie Volume 12 published in 1765.

The site became more enjoyable to tourists during the 1800s, thanks to the opening of the Causeway Tramway to the site. The Tramway is just over nine miles long and runs from Portrush to the Causeway along the coast. Today, steam tourist trains are a popular attraction for sightseers. Popularity has continued to increase and it remains strong today. Because accommodations are available in nearby communities such as Portrush, Portstewart and Bushmills, as a day trip from these areas, the Giant's Causeway is a favorite stop. Visitors to the area can find lodging in one of the communities and visit the site during the day.

The Visitor centre, situated on the top cliff, is open most of the year. This provides and excellent range of visitor benefits, providing gifts, history and food. For those interested in the true history of the Giants Causeway, there is an optional audio / visual presentation with commentary available in 5 European languages. This advantage should be abused by the visitors to learn the story's, history , theory of science, recent news and many other aspects of this great Northern Irish Coastline.