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Where is it? -

The Giant's Causeway is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

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How many columns? -

The Giant's Causeway is made of over 40,000 interlocking columns.

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Shape -

The Giant's Causeway is comprised of mostly hexagonal columns, whose tops form stepping stones.

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What kind of rock are they made of? -

The Giant's Causeway is made of basalt.

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How tall are the columns? -

The tallest columns are about 12 m high (around 39 ft).

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How big? -

The Giant's Causeway stretches along 4 mi (6 km) of Northern Ireland's northern coast.

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How did the Giant's Causeway form? -

Irish mythology has an explanation for it. As the name suggests, the Causeway was built by a giant!

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A tale of giants -

Legend goes that an Irish giant named Finn MacCool (or Fionn mac Cumhaill) was responsible for building the Causeway with the columns.

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Who was this Irish giant? -

Finn MacCool was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology. References to him can also be found in in the mythology of Scotland.

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Bridge -

Because Finn MacCool is a mythological being in both Ireland and Scotland, one version of the legend says that the giant simply built the Causeway to travel between both countries.

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Love story -

But there are many other versions of the legend. One version says that Finn MacCool was in love with a giant woman from the Scottish island of Staffa, so he built the Causeway to try to bring her back to Ireland.

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Feud -

Most versions actually tell the tale of a feud between Finn MacCool and the Scottish giant Benandonner (also known as the "Red Man"). He essentially built the Causeway to fight his Scottish rival.

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Deception -

There's a version of the legend that says that when Finn MacCool saw how big Benandonner actually was, he pretended to be a baby and his wife, Oonagh, tucked him in a cradle.

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Giant of the giants -

The Scottish giant seeing how big the baby was, imagined the father would be huge, so he fled the country and destroyed the rest of the path so that this even bigger giant could never reach him.

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Escape -

Another version of the legend—and perhaps the most popular one—is that Finn MacCool arrived in Scotland to find a giant much bigger than himself and ran back to Ireland.

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The Giant's boot -

Legend has it that Finn MacCool even lost his boot along the way, which can be found onsite, fossilized.

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Bite -

One other version of the legend says that Finn MacCool bit the Scottish giant's middle finger, which made him lose all his strength and leave the country.

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Hard workers -

There is also a somewhat more relatable version of the legend. It says that the giants never fought, as they fell asleep from all the hard work building the Causeway.

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On the other side -

Identical basalt columns can be found across the channel, at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa.

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The truth -

Despite myths and legends, the Giant's Causeway is nature's work.

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Eruption -

A volcanic eruption around 50 to 60 million years ago is responsible for the formations of the Giant's Causeway.

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Volcanic eruption -

As the lava cooled down, it formed those amazing hexagonal shapes.

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UNESCO World Heritage Site -

The Giant's Causeway was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

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Nature reserve -

And in 1987, it was declared a National Nature Reserve by Northern Ireland's Department of the Environment.

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Care -

The National Trust (an organization for environmental and heritage conservation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) took over the site in the 1960s.

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Tourism -

The Giant's Causeway has been a popular tourist destination since the 19th century, and continues to attract thousands of visitors each year.

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Bird haven -

The Giant's Causeway is home to a number of seabirds, including fulmars, petrels, and cormorants.

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Flora -

Plants also thrive in the area, including sea spleenworts, sea fescues, and frog orchids, among others.

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See also -

The UK and Ireland's most fascinating Neolithic sites

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