Tuesday, December 27, 2011

the north coast - giant's causeway

The Giant's Causeway, Antrim Coast

I'm skipping back and forth here, simply because Christmas 'happened' since our trip to the North Coast! And because of that, I just have to fill in the available days! So here goes my post for the Giant's Causeway!

When in Ireland, do as the Irish! The Giant's Causeway is a huge piece of Northern Irish history. Lilah loved this piece of history, well, maybe not the history, but she loved climbing over these rocks with the wind in her face! In fact, she told us later that it was her favourite part of the whole day! What fun to show her my own childhood memories!

Here's the history of the Giant's Causeway in a nutshell...

Some 50 to 60 million years ago,during the Paleogene period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled rapidly, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits".

There is also a legend that goes along with the Giant's Causeway - which as a child, I always thought fascinating!

Legend has it that Irish Warrior, Finn McCool, had spent many days and nights trying to create a bridge to Scotland because he was challenged by another giant. A fellow boatsman told him that the opponent was much larger than he. Finn told his wife and she came up with an ingenious plan to dress Fionn like a baby. They spent many nights creating a costume and bed. When the opponent came to Fionn's house; Fionn's wife told him that Fionn was out woodcutting and the opponent would have to wait for him to return. Then Fionn's wife showed him her baby and when the opponent saw him he was terrified at the thought of how huge Finn would be. He ran back to Scotland and threw random stones from the causeway into the waters below.

Read more about the history and legend(s) here.

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