A Northern Ireland natural wonder with quite the folklore tale.

Let’s travel to Northern Ireland to bask in this intriguing natural formation. We’ll discover not just the story, but the science behind these fascinating formations.

The discovery

If you’ve been to Northern Ireland, or already live there, there’s bound to be a point where you heard of the Giant’s Causeway. And that’s because it’s one of the coolest natural formations there is. John Sutter from CNN describes it like this:

A golf-course green canyon wall slopes into a set of volcanic rock formations that are completely surreal: Near-perfect hexagon tubes are stacked next to each other like puzzle pieces.

The formation is made up of roughly 40 000 basalt columns that each have 5, 6 or 7 sides, and they literally come up from the sea and it runs for about 6km along the coast.

The Giant’s Causeway was first officially discovered in 1692. It was when a bloke named William King decided to take a holiday to the north coast of Northern Ireland. At the time his job title was the Anglican Bishop of Derry, but in the not too distant future he would be known as the Archbishop of Dublin.

Even though the Bishop is acknowledged as ‘discovering’ the place. Like most natural formations the locals had known about the place for pretty much ever.

As with most things back in the 17th century, discoveries were usually attributed to the first one who published about the thing. And in this case, the first written reference about the Giant’s Causeway can be found in a letter from a Sir Richard Bulkeley to a Dr Lister at Trinity College in Dublin. The letter was written in 1693 and was even published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London. Which coincidentally is

The world’s first and longest-running scientific journal.

But, like a typical mansplainer, oddly enough Bulkeley had never visited the Giant’s Causeway, so his whole description about the Causeway was based entirely on what the Bishop had seen when he went for his visit.

The next year in 1694, there was a second article about the Giant’s Causeway, this time by a founding member of the Dublin Society, a Mr Thomas Molyneux. Like Bulkeley, he’d never actually visited the Causeway and so just spoke of the information that came before him as fact. The drawing that accompanied the article in Philosophical Transactions was ‘highly stylised’, and not entirely accurate, so Molyneux went looking for an artist that could draw something a touch more realistic. And he managed to commission an artist named Edwin Sandys.

Sandys went on to make some pretty great drawings. With his subsequent engravings appearing in Philosophical Transactions in 1697.

But the Giant’s Causeway really took off in the mind of tourists when some pretty awesome watercolours were done by artist, Susanna Drury in 1739 and 1740. She was even rewarded £25 in art premiums for the paintings and they actually made their was across the European continent. In 1743, the paintings were even engraved.

And it wasn’t until 1765, in Volume 12 of Encyclopédie, the French Encyclopaedia, that an article was published about the Giant’s Causeway using the engravings made of Drury’s paintings. And again Drury’s engravings were used in a follow up article in 1768. The captions on the engravings were written by a French geologist Nicolas Desmarest, who came to the conclusion that the

‘columns were volcanic in origin’.

Desmarest was correct in his assumption and is actually credited with suggesting the Causeway’s origin. And all this from an engraving of a painting, not even a photo, and of course, once again, he himself had never visited the Causeway.

In 1788, one of the first guidebooks published proved to be very popular. The Complete Irish Traveller detailed the excitement about so many places in Ireland it had to be split into two volumes. And, you guessed it, it contained an exciting description of the Giant’s Causeway.

Guidebooks proved to be incredibly popular and really took off in the 1830s and 40s, with the Giant’s Causeway featuring in practically every single one. Each with images and stories about the formations.

The 1832 article in the Dublin Penny Journal hints at the Causeway’s popularity:

Our readers, perhaps, may be apt, in the words of an Irish tourist, to exclaim, when they see our wood-cut – “this Causeway, that every tourist has trampled on, that has been sketched, etched, and lithographed, described by antiquarians, geologists and poets, system-builders and book makers, and why not” – why show us and tell us what everybody knows?

Naturalists part of Naturalist clubs would make trips to the Causeway, excited to be gathering their own information about the formations and developing their knowledge with what was already known. This was part of a geological movement that saw more and more prints of the Causeway appear in more and more journals.

At the same time photography was just starting to take off, and so it was that photos were more starting to make their way into those journals and proved so popular that by the end of the century, it was reliable that they would be in the journal or guidebook right alongside the engravings, sketches and paintings.

Tourism was the real draw card for the naturalists and geologists as well as those aspiring. The Causeway become so popular that a Tramway had to be introduced to help with the numbers.

In the 1960s, The National Trust took charge of the site, and in 1986, UNESCO declared the site to be a World Heritage Site, with the Department for the Environment of North Ireland marking the area a National Nature Reserve.

All of this pretty much ensured that the Causeway and surrounds were protected from modernisation that would ruin the landscape. Because the formation isn’t the only important thing. The beauty is also in the

Cliffs, seashores, marshes, and grasslands [that] are home to some 50 species of birds, as well as to more than 200 species of plants.

An amazing place, the Causeway is known to have been a tourist attraction for the last 300 years, perhaps more for the locals and is know as a national symbol of Northern Ireland.

The Science

The Giant’s Causeway is one of the greatest Natural Wonders in the UK. And by its geographical definition, it is

A natural formation of basalt columns that were formed roughly 60 million years ago as the direct result of a gigantic volcanic eruption in the area.

And if we have a look through the article in the Dublin Penny Journal again we can find some interesting information on how the Causeway looks.

The greater part of [the columns] are of a pentagon figure, but so closely compacted together, that though the pillars are perfectly distinct, the very water which falls upon them will scarcely penetrate between. There are some of the pillars which have six, seven and a few have eight sides.

Its believed that the irregular columns that form the Causeway were formed when molten rock was forced through the fissures of the earth forming a lava plateau. Basically the interesting, and one would think, unnatural shapes that the columns appear in are due to the lava cooling so quickly that when the lava hardened it contracted. Very simply, the number of sides depends on how quick the lava cooled.

There was a lot of lava and therefore there are a lot of columns, let’s head back to our favourite journal article to find out just how many.

In the entire Causeway it is computed there are from 30 000 to 40 000 pillars the tallest measuring about thirty-three feet.

That 33 feet equates to about 10 to 12 metres high. Which I don’t have to tell you, is a long way up… or down, depending on where you’re standing.

Because the Causeway disappears quite literally into the sea. Erosion has definitely been a factor over the centuries, or dare I say, millennia. But in this case erosion hasn’t been so much of a nuisance but has created more attractions for tourists. The erosion of the ocean on the rocks has created some interesting formations. Let’s have another look in our favourite article again:

Among other wonders, there is also the Giant’s Well… the Giant’s Chair, the Giant’s Bagpipes, the Giant’s Theatre, and the Giant’s Organ.

About 50 to 60 million years ago, there was so much volcanic activity going on that the basalt that has been chilling below the surface was turned to liquid by the heat of the earths core, and this molten basalt rose up like some kind of biblical event and practically a lava lake was formed. And it was when this lake cooled that the columns were formed. As we already know the different shapes of the columns depended on the speed of the cooling, and since the amount of lava was lake sized, there’s no way it could have all cooled at the same temperature or the same rate. Giving us columns across this plateau that look mysteriously kinda like stairs or stepping stones.

But the despite its magnificence, the Giant’s Causeway is far from being a one time wonder. Similar natural formations have been seen right around the world. Albeit with perhaps a more interesting name, as the Devils Postpile in the US comes to mind. But this formation is smaller, meaning that the cooler was faster.

While the basics of the science behind the columns was understood, it wasn’t until recently that geologists could figure out the whole story of why the magma reacts the way it does when cooling.

It was a Professor of Volcanology at the University of Liverpool, Yan Lavallée who pondered:

This is a question that has fascinated the world of geology for a very long time. We have been wanting to know whether the temperature of the lava that causes the fractures was hot, warm or cold.

Lavallée and his team were able to recreate the exact conditions in the lab when they used basalt cores drilled from the volcano, Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. The cores were cut to be 20 cm long, and were then heated up to over 1000°C, which is when they started to soften. The samples were then clamped and cooled to see when they could snap. It was found that the magma would break when it reached between 840 and 890°C, proving the process and temperature through which the Giant’s Causeway was formed all those millions of years ago.

This amazing breakthrough has been epitomised when Eleanor Killough from the National Trust said:

It’s no wonder this place is a UNESCO World Heritage site because beyond the mind-boggling beauty, the Causeway is our portal into Earth’s most ancient past.

If we take a step back though, the Causeway can look like a massive series of stepping stones. And it’s this that has caused imaginations to kick into gear, because who wouldn’t think the Causeway was made for giants to walk across oceans. And now we head into legend territory. A legend that tells of giants moving back and forth from Ireland and Scotland.

This is nature at its most primal: carving the land into made formations that send the imagination into overdrive… No wonder dreamy and fantastical myths surround it.

The Irish Version

While science is in the know about how the columns are formed. The Irish had another explanation for the cause of the Causeway. And it went a little something like this:

It was common knowledge that there were similar formations on the Isle of Staff in Scotland. It’s known as Fingal’s Cave and is very similar to what is seen at the Giant’s Causeway.

The legend says that Finn McCool, an Irish giant, and a Scottish giant that went by Benandonner, weren’t really the best of friends. Versions differ on how the challenge came about, but what’s important is that the two giants were committed to a challenge to fight each other. So Finn, to make this easy and because he’s a good guy, decided to build the Giant’s Causeway between the two islands, so that the giants could get to each other, so they could have this supposedly legendary fight.

There are a couple of versions about what happened.  

One says that Finn overslept, and when he didn’t show in Scotland, Benandonner went looking for him. His quick thinking wife, Oonagh, put a blanket over him, so that he looked like a massive baby.

Another says that Finn was awake the entire time and when he saw how much bigger Benandonner was than himself, he freaked out and got his wife to disguise him as a baby.

Regardless of how it came about, Finn is under a blanket pretending to be a baby. And when Benandonner gets to Scotland and see’s this baby that is as big as a full grown giant. He assumes that his father, Finn, must be absolutely gigantic. Benandonner is so terrified that he races home, destroying the Causeway behind him.

There’s another version that says that Oonagh, the fast thinking wife painted a rock so that it looked like a steak. While she gave the steak painted rock to Benandonner, and a real steak to Finn, who was acting as the baby. And so, Benandonner, who supposedly had never eaten a steak before in his life, saw how easily the baby was eating a giant sized steak, while he was properly struggling. So naturally he freaked out and ran the whole way home, also destroying the Causeway as he went.

Even though this is the main myth that you will hear surrounding the Giant’s Causeway when you go to visit, it’s not the only one. There are in fact, a couple of them.

One of the folklore tales says that instead of being a giant, Finn McCool was actually a legendary hero. Kind of like Hercules.

He has super powers, special abilities and was reportedly a member of the Fomorians. The Fomorians were giant beings, who were basically like Greek gods. They had supernatural origins and specific magic abilities, they were also very popular in pre-Christian Irish mythology. Disappointingly, the stories and legends about the Fomorians have been lost to time.

These days

If you drop by the Giant’s Causeway anywhere after July in 2012, you’ll find a new visitor centre. In 2005, Heneghan Peng Architects won a competition to design a visitor centre that would feature exhibition spaces, a café, toilets and the all important giftshop. From the visitor centre, tourists visiting the Causeway only have to walk less than a kilometre to get to a designated tourist area of the natural formations.

Once you’re down on the Causeway, you can actually walk along the giants’ stepping stones. But be careful, because if you look close enough, on the columns closer to the water, you’ll see dark stripes on the rocks, this is a type of plant known as Tar Lichen, and is incredibly slippery, so unless you want to end up all the way in Scotland yourself, watch where you step.

Having said that, the Causeway is pretty great for rock pools. There’s Limpets, Sea Anemones and even Cushion Star Fish.

The visitor centre, rook pools and of course the Causeway attract 300 000 tourists each year. That’s not as much as some of the destinations we’ve covered on this podcast, but for some pretty cool rock shapes, it is pretty impressive.

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