Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland – 5/30/18 – 3 miles

And just like that, Jim and I were in Northern Ireland!

Okay, so it took some planning for a two-week trip across the pond to visit Northern Ireland and the islands and highlands of Scotland.  Most of our days were filled with castle explorations, pub inspections and practicing not screaming as Jim navigated on the wrong side of the road driving a stick shift.  “We did not need this level of difficulty!” became one of our memes.

Did a little hiking in these two stunningly beautiful countries. If you’ve been, you know what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t been yet, you must.

After two nights and a fascinating day of political history in Derry, the second largest city in Northern Ireland, we embarked on a drive of the Causeway Coastal Route (A2) along the Antrim Coast.  We toured the entire route from Derry to Belfast in a single day, but two or even three days would be awesome to explore the villages along the way.  We saw some highlights but we missed some stuff (too many castle ruins and distilleries, too little time!) Giant’s Causeway was our #1 goal. It’s part of the UK National Trust (like the U.S. National Park Service) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Science:  A result of volcanic activity 60 million years ago, a natural geologic formation of around 40,000 vertical polygonal basalt columns massed together to form a causeway jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Legend: Finn McCool, an Irish giant, created the stepping stone pathway so he could walk over to Scotland to fight a rival Scottish giant named Benandonner. My money is on Finn McCool.

Info about Giant’s Causeway is here. I’ll stick to our day of exploration.  The massive Visitor Center was teeming with people.  [Though we didn’t take time to explore the architecture of the VC, you should!] We got through the enormous gift shop and outside to the trail beginning, where there are three choices to reach the Causeway:  (1) walk a half-mile on the Blue Trail, which is actually a paved roadway, (2) ride a bus on the Blue Trail, or (3) climb the Red Trail up to the cliff edge for a two-mile walk and then descend the Shepherd’s Steps to intersect the Blue Trail and make a loop. Trail descriptions here.

Jim and I started walking the lower path…

…but soon we backtracked to take the Red Trail along the clifftop.

Spectacular! Every little side step to the edge gave a view that couldn’t be captured by a camera, although Lord knows I tried. All around was saturated with vibrant colors. 

 

The bushes of yellow gorse growing in profusion reminded me of the wild yellow coreopsis I saw covering East Anacapa Island at Channel Islands National Park.

From this windy height the people on the Causeway were tiny swarming insects and the rocks really didn’t look like much, a pointy peninsula in the vast coastline…but climbing around on the stones, I realized how very special this place is.

At Shepherd’s Gate

Before going left to see the Causeway up close, we followed the trail as it continued right

Basalt column formation called Organ Pipes

The skinny strip of rock jutting into the water in the upper right quadrant is Giant's Causeway.  The flat cliff top in the extreme upper left is the Yellow Trail. Crazy, right?

The trail appears to continue, but shortly past this fencing the path was blocked

Down at the shore’s edge

A young man and woman who were also rock hopping among the lumps of volcanic rock took a photo for us.  The guy was picking up rocks (is that allowed?) and gave one to me, a smooth round black rock that fit in the palm of my hand.  He said he was from Tennessee, visiting Northern Ireland with his church on a mission to evangelize on the streets of Belfast.  I wonder how that went?

 

Standing at the Giant’s Causeway, the blocks were no longer theoretical but magical. So tiny from the cliff’s edge, now I saw how extensive the geologic formations were. Accepting the throngs as a matter of fact, the humans gave scale to the landscape. Jim grew tired of me asking him to either pose or take photos of me, and I felt self-conscious for wanting mementos.  But of course I’m glad now that I have them!

We explored mounds of blocks, some darker, some lighter, some flat as pavement, some missing.  A staff ranger stood alert to people going too far to the edges where waves crashed.  Occasionally, without warning, a huge wave would splash high up and drench a few folks and I could see the potential danger.

The cliffs in the background where the Yellow Trail traces the edges

On the Causeway looking up at the high point

From the Yellow Trail at the high point looking down at the Causeway

 

Postscript:

We continued on our way along the Antrim Coast and stopped to see Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge to the tiny rock island where salmon fishermen were based when salmon were plentiful in those waters.  The walk to the rope bridge is free, but a paid timed ticket is required to walk across (and back). This late in the day, the line was an hour long, so we chose to just sit and watch. Looks pretty cool, eh?

 

IRELAND: “There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met yet.” ~William Butler Yeats