Saturday we left Belfast having had almost no sleep. That cultural fest I mentioned in the last blog went well into the early morning! We made our way north on the Causeway Coastal Route to the Antrim Coast. The scenery became increasingly fabulous as we went along. With the weather cooperating, there were plenty of opportunities for photos.
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| View of Ballygally |
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| View towards Tor Head |
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| View of White Bay on the Antrim Coast |
Our first lengthy stop was at the World Heritage Site, the Giant's Causeway. Since the last time I was here, a visitor's centre has been built and the entrance ticket include an audio tour. It greatly improves the visitor experience. One part of the audio info explains how millions of years ago the combination of climate, geography and geology came together as a "perfect storm" to create these amazing rock formations. While they are truly stunning, the explanation of their origin was way too complicated and scientific to really absorb and understand.
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| The amazing rocks at the Giant's Causeway |
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| More of the Causeway rocks |
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| The interlocking basalt columns |
There is, however, another theory about how this area came into being and it involves the legend of Finn McCool, an Irish giant. The essence of the legend is this (taken from a website):
Finn McCool had an ongoing rivalry with a Scottish giant named Benandonner. The two giants would yell insults to each other from across the seas between Ireland and Scotland. Eventually, MacCool took it a step further and threw a large clump of earth at Benandonner. The Scottish giant retaliated with a rock back to Finn shouting that if he could get his hand on him, he would make sure that Finn would never fight again adding that unfortunately he could not swim the short distance across the Channel, so Finn would be spared that fate. Finn tore large pieces from the cliffs, pushing stones into the ocean bed and made a sturdy causeway to Scotland and, when he had finished he shouted, “Now you’ll have no excuse. Come over and do your best". MacCool turned on his heel and fled when he realized the rapidly approaching Benandonner was much larger than he appeared to be when great spans of water separated them. The legend continues that MacCool’s wife, Oonagh, invited Benandonner into their home for tea and invented an elaborate story about her enormous baby, who was actually a swaddled Finn MacCool in disguise, and the even larger, amazingly strong father of the child who happened to be out hunting. Her story was enough to terrify Benandonner, at which point he fled back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway in his path. What we see today, according to legend, is what’s left after Benandonner’s retreat.
Many prefer the legend to the scientific evidence and, as proof, point out remnants of Finn at the Causeway: there is Finn's camel, Humphrey; there is Benandonner's boot; and there is Finn's pipe organ.
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| If you look closely at the rock formations, you can see Humphrey |
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| This is the outline of him |
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| This is Finn's boot |
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| And this is his pipe organ. Look closely and you will see Kathleen standing in front of the pipes! |
So, you decide what works for you: the facts or the myth!
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