IN NORTHERN IRELAND, NEW GIANT'S CAUSEWAY VISITORS CENTRE
The new complex is hidden from the coastal landscape by a grass roof and features exhibitions on the legend and science behind the attraction where visitors can hear the stories of the people who have called this coastline home. They can find out about the wildlife that inhabits the area, watch the Giant's Causeway form before their eyes and spot clues to prove the mythical giant, Finn McCool, really did exist.

Some of the highlights of the new visitor centre and the surrounding Causeway include:

• Four new walking trails will give visitors the chance to explore the Giant’s Causeway at their own pace – they are all colour-coded, designed for all fitness levels, and incorporate the Causeway’s stones, stunning cliff-top vistas and spectacular seascapes
• The coastal path extends 11 miles (18 km) to the nearby Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
• Runkerry Head provides a beautiful two-mile (3 km) walk
• Some of Europe’s finest cliff scenery with fantastic bird watching
• Internationally-renowned geology, flora and fauna

Fact or Fiction: About the Giant’s Causeway

Made up of over 40,000 basalt columns that stretch out to sea, science tells us that the formation of this otherworldly landscape started 60 million years ago when magma from inside the earth came through cracks in the earth’s surface – lava flowed then cooled when it came in contact with air and rock, hardening into basalt. It took millions of years of erosion for the columns to begin to show and it wasn’t until after the last Ice Age, about 15,000 years ago, that the columns were revealed at the shore as they appear today. Locals, however, have their own story to tell. They say the Giant's Causeway was the stomping ground of giant Finn McCool, who lived in these parts nearly two thousand years ago, and built the Causeway so he could walk across the sea to Scotland and fight his great rival Benandonner.

For more information on the Giant’s Causeway visithttp://www.discoverireland.com/ca-en/about-ireland/experience-ireland/icons/giants-causeway/


Photo copyright Anne Gordon

Posted on Thursday, 12th july, 2012