Giants Causeway

In September, I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful Emerald Isle. My husband and I went to the United Kingdom for our holidays as my husband is British and we wanted to visit with his family again. We had done all of the touristy things when we lived there several years ago, so this trip was mainly to spend time with his family. Well, my husband's maternal side of the family is Irish from Northern Ireland and I hadn't met them before. So to my great delight we planned several days holiday in Northern Ireland.

Of course I was somewhat worried about this trip because of the news stories we hear about "the troubles" over there. But once I got there, I was in awe of the beauty of the land and the warmth of the people and any imagined fear I had soon melted away.

Ireland as a whole has a rich Celtic mythology full of fairies, heroes and giants, and I could see why. Such mythological characters could be hiding all around in the mists, the lush green rolling hills and spectacular seacoast. One place in particular certainly captures one's attention and imagination when it comes to fanciful mythological creatures - the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Situated on Northern Ireland's northern seacoast at the edge of the Antrim Plateau, the Giants Causeway is made up of thousands of polygonal rock columns jutting out of the coast and out to sea. Scientists believe that this remarkable natural landscape was created by ancient volcanic activity from around 60 million years ago, combined with the constant lashing of wind and waves, when the lava cooled and took on these amazing shapes. Local mythology, however, has it that is was built by giants...

Long ago in Ireland, lived the giant Finn MacCool and over in Scotland lived the giant Benandonner. The rival giants yelled at each other across the sea of Moyle arguing over who was stronger, so Finn MacCool, eager to prove his strength, offered to build a causeway between the two lands so that the giants could meet and undergo their tests of strength. And so, Finn set to building the causeway from County Antrim all the way to Fingal's Cave, Benandonner's lair on the island of Staffa.

The work was long and arduous, and poor Finn grew so exhausted that he fell asleep. His wife Oonagh discovered the sleeping Finn the next morning just as the sound of footsteps rumbled in the distance. It was Benandonner! He was coming! And he was huge, much bigger than Finn MacCool. So the quick-thinking Oonagh covered her sleeping husband with a blanket and bonnet. Benandonner demanded to know where Finn was. He accused him of cowardice for not showing to meet him for their test of strength. As his voice boomed around them Oonagh shushed him, scolding him not to waken her baby. Benandonner peered down to see the sleeping Finn wrapped like a baby and his eyes grew wide with panic. If that's Finn's baby - and a huge baby at that - then Benandonner wasn't going to stick around to find out how big the father, Finn, was! So he quickly ran back to Scotland destroying the causeway as he went.

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