JOYCEAN PICS 2008
The Giant's Causeway
Contents of This Page


  Causeway Hotel
  The Giant's Causeway
  
  
CONTENTS 2008
   1  Tours IJJF Symposium 2008: "Re-Nascent Joyce"
   2  Tours and Joyce
   3  Tours: miscellanea
   4  La Maison du Vouvray
   5  Boat Trip down the Loire
   6  Chateau Royal or the Da Vinci Court, Amboise
   7  Paris and Joyce
   8  Paris: miscellanea
   9  Mont-Saint-Michel
  10  Dublin, Jew and Joyce: "Jublin"
  11  Dublin: miscellanea
  12  Athlone
  13  Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nois)
  14  Belfast: "You Are Now Entering Loyalist Sandy Row"
  15  Carrickfergus Castle
  16  The Hurry Head, East Antrim (Co. Antrim)
  17  Carrick-a-Rede
  18  The Old Bushmills Distillery Co. Ltd.
  19  Dunluce Castle
  20  The Giant's Causeway
  21  Seoul JJSK Conference 2008
  22  Seoul: miscellanea 2008

The Giant's Causeway
24 June 2008

  
  The Giant's Causeway (or Irish: Clochan na bhFomharach) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.  It is located on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills.  It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.  In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.  The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea.  Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides.  The tallest is about 12 meters (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 meters thick in places.  The Giant's Causeway is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland.  
  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.  While contraction in the vertical direction reduced the flow thickness (without fracturing), horizontal contraction could only be accommodated by cracking throughout the flow.  The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today.  The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene period.  
  Legend has it that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.  One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland.  When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him.  To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son.  In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby.  In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant,' he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed.  Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.  
  Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak.  When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.  The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.  (Extracted from the site of Wikipedia.)

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Causeway Hotel
       The Causeway Hotel, 40 Causeway Road, Bushmills, Co. Antrim, BT57 8SU (Near the Visitor Centre of The Giant's Causeway).  The history of the Causeway Hotel in Northern Ireland goes back well over 150 years.
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Hotel, 40 Causeway Road, Bushmills, Co. Antrim
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 (Tuesday 24 June) My lunch at Causeway Hotel: Causeway Burger, some assorted salads and a pint of Cider
  
      
The Giant's Causeway
      The Giant's Causeway.  The contact address is: National Trust, North Coast Office, Giant's Causeway, 42 Causeway Road, Bushmills, Co. Antrim.
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Signpost of the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Causeway Coast
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The "Pipe Organ," the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The "Pipe Organ," the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The "Pipe Organ," the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The "Pipe Organ," the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) A plain of columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) A plain of columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) A plain of columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) A plain of columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Basalt columns, the Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The "Wishing Chair," Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) Me in front of the "Wishing Chair," Giant's Causeway
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 (Tuesday 24 June) The Giant's Causeway




        


Maintained by Eishiro Ito