The Giant's Causeway

Saturday, I went to the Giant's Causeway. I took the Northernirish public transport (bus and train) to go and to come back: the travel lasted quite a long ltime (3 hours the single - journey from 7h to 21h45).

Amazing, wonderful, beautiful... : Giant's Causeway was really great. The morning (11h-12h), I went to the principal site and on the aftternoon, I tried to walk on the cliff path (marche sur les falaises) : I was really slippery (glissant)... You can see the photos and here are some explanations about the Giant's Causeway.

The Giant's Causeway is an Unesco world heritage site, a national nature reserve (birds...) and Northern Ireland's first tourist attraction. The Giant's Causeway is a natural pavement of huge (immenses) rocks going into the Atlantic Ocean. It's situated on NorthernIreland north coast. Local people probably knew the Giant's Causeway long before it attracted attention but Giant's Causeway was officially "discovered" in 1693.

The Giant's Causeway was formed about 60 million years ago by volcanic eruptions (the lava coolings formed a hard rock named basalt). This type of lava was able to cool slowly and evenly (très régulièrement) : that's why it formed column with regular sides (most have 5-6 sides but there are some who have 4,7 or 8 sides).

Basalt column          Zoom on the sizes of the rocks

Here are the scientific facts .... but me I prefer the legend helping to explain the strange landscape of the Giant's Causeway.

It's a causeway linking Ireland and Scotland created by an irish giant named Finn MacCool. To prove his superior strenght, Finn decided to fight against a rival Scottish giant named Benandonner. As there was no boat large enough to carry huge Finn across the sea to fight against Benandonner, he built his own way with enormous stepping stones.

But it's not finish yet .... The story take an humoristic twist (tour humoristique) when Finn, seing that Benandonner was bigger than him, flees (fuya) home in fears and asks, his wife Oonagh, to hide (cacher) him. Oonagh is said to have disguised Finn as a baby and put him in a huge cradle (berceau). When Benandonner saw the size (taille) of the "baby", he thought the father must be gigantic and fled home in terror, destroying the Causeway in case he was followed.

This is the reason why the Giant's Causeway exist in Northern Ireland and also on the scottish island of Staffa to the North: indeed, these are the two surviving ends of the causeway built by Finn Mac Cool.

What's is strange in the Giant's Causeway is that the legend is always on the air: Indeed, the shapes of the rocks reminds the story of the Giants. So let's play together ... Open the following document and try to find the names of the features associated with this mythological giant.

The_Giant_s_Causeway_game