Giant’s Causeway

Over 40,000 basalt columns step down into the sea on the north Antrim coast, about 1.9 mi from Bushmills, where the National Trust cares for Northern Ireland’s first World Heritage Site. Most columns have six sides; some have four, others eight.

Lava, ice and the sea: how the columns formed

The stones are a little under 60 million years old, and their story runs in four steps:

1. Ireland was still attached to North America; as Europe pulled away, fissures opened and lava rose through them.
2. The lower lava layers cooled at a slow pace, contracted and cracked into the regular hexagonal pattern seen today.
3. During the Ice Age, glaciers scraped away the upper layers of rock.
4. The sea then eroded the coast and exposed the columns.

Weathering has carved several formations into shapes with names: the Organ, the Giant’s Boot, the Giant’s Eyes, the Shepherd’s Steps, the Honeycomb, the Giant’s Harp and the Chimney Stacks.

Finn McCool, Benandonner and a grandmother turned to stone

Legend gives the causeway a builder. The Irish giant Finn McCool laid it across the sea to face his Scottish rival Benandonner, who tore it up as he fled back to Scotland. Two places on the shore carry the story:

• At Port Noffer, the giant’s bay, lies the boot Finn is said to have lost.
• West of Port Ganny, the bay before the Little Causeway, a stooped figure of stone climbs the Stookans headland: Finn’s grandmother, frozen in stone, in the version told by Causeway guides in the 1700s and early 1800s.

Tramway crowds, a fire and the National Trust

The site became popular with tourists in the 19th century, particularly after the Giant’s Causeway Tramway opened. Only after the National Trust took over its care in the 1960s were some of the vestiges of commercialism removed.

• 1986: World Heritage listing under two criteria, as an exceptional natural phenomenon and a major stage in the Earth’s history.
• 1987: National Nature Reserve. The site is also a Special Area of Conservation and an ASSI, inside an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
• 2000 to 2012: no permanent visitor centre, after the 1986 building burned down in 2000.
• Today: an award-winning sustainable visitor centre with exhibition, audio guides, café and a shop where over 85% of the items are made by local crafters.

Reaching the B147 without a car

The visitor centre stands on the B147, Causeway Road, and parking in the surrounding area is limited. Public transport does reach it:

• Trains from Belfast or Derry/Londonderry run to Coleraine, where Ulsterbus 172 continues to the causeway.
• Other bus routes serve the site, some of them seasonal: Goldliner 221, Causeway Rambler 402, Open Top Causeway Coast 177 and Antrim Coaster 252.
• Coach and minibus groups must book with the Causeway booking office by email; they cannot book online.
• Walkers on the Causeway Coast Way, a coastal route of about 33 mi, join the site’s own trail network.