We tried to figure out where to park and how to get to Giant’s Causeway on that beautiful day. In the end, we opted for free parking in Bushmills, took the bikes and cycled on an idyllic track alongside the railway towards Giant’s Causeway, with stunning coastal views. At the end of the railway line, we left our bikes and walked past the visitor centre and down the coast to admire the most fascinating rock formation formed by nature.
What you can see are approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, which are the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption around 60 million years ago. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff into the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven, or eight sides, with the tallest column approximately 12 metres high.
Across the sea, at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, there are identical basalt columns which were part of the same ancient lava flow. This led to the ancient story of Fionn, the giant, who built the causeway over the North Channel.
We were happy to have managed to visit the Giant’s Causeway in perfect conditions. It was a great experience to walk over the columns like stepping stones. Even at 6 pm, there were still lots of people there, although there might have been even more during the day.
On our travels, we had encountered other sites of basalt formations, here are 2 fine examples:
in Germany
in Armenia: location 1 and location 2
After cycling back to Bushmills, we looked for a table in one of the restaurants, but we had no luck — every place was fully booked. In the end, we went to a takeaway and walked home to the camper with two boxes of fish and chips — an experience we don’t need to repeat!
The next day, the weather was grey with the occasional drizzle, which gave us the opportunity to get some work done before we made our way to the Bushmills Distillery for a whiskey tasting session, after which we might have bought a bottle or two.
We weren’t in the mood for a big city like Belfast, so we decided to take a route through the countryside and see what we could find there – more soon!