The Giant’s Causeway And The Legends

The “Giant’s Causeway” is an impressive attraction that impresses visitors with its hexagonal stones. In many places, the symmetry between the rocks is such that one can hardly be convinced that the area is a creation of Mother Nature. And yet it is! According to experts, about 50 to 60 million years ago, there was intense volcanic activity in the Antrim region of Northern Ireland.

The polygonal columns are of basalt, a nice volcanic rock created by the very rapid cooling of hot lava. As for all the strange things people saw that could not be explained logically, there is the legend, which “explains” the creation of impressive hexagonal rocks reminiscent of nuts. In this article, I will tell you the story according to the tradition that attempted to answer this strange rock formation.

Myths about the Path of the Giant

According to Irish tradition, the columns, which today do not survive as a whole, were a causeway built by the giant Finn McCool. Finn challenged another giant from Scotland, Benadoner, to a fight and constructed this oversized path to unite the two coasts of Scotland and Ireland so that the two giants could meet and give battle. The opponent accepted the invitation and arrived in the area where the duel was to take place. Finn saw him from afar and realized he was much older than he had supposed, so he hesitated to contend with him.

The woman’s smart idea

According to tradition, it is the female mind that gives a solution to this problem. To save himself, he took advantage of the cunning of his wife. Ona, his wife, disguised her husband as a baby, and when Beadoner arrived at their house, she told him Finn was away hunting. She called him in but asked him not to speak out loud so as not to wake their sleeping baby. When the giant saw it, he got frightened; if that was the baby’s size, his father would be so big that he could not possibly beat him, so he ran away scared. 

As he returned to Scotland crossing the path with the hexagonal columns, he destroyed it so that there was no “bridge” by which Finn would pass in pursuit of him. Thus the remnants of the giant’s path composed the mysterious attraction we see today. On the Stafa coast of Scotland, there are similar rocks that justify the legend. Yet, they are not so many and symmetrical as Ireland’s.

A World Heritage Site and a home for birds and plants

A second legend wants giant Finn in love with a girl who lived in Scotland and made the path to bring her to him, but the first version is more widespread. Today the site is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and has been ranked as the UK’s fourth natural wonder. Also, the area is a haven for seabirds such as fulmar, petrel, blackthorn cormorant, guillemot, and razorbill, while the eroded rocks are home to rare and unusual plants.

Many tourists are excited to visit the site every year and learn about the mythology that surrounds it. If you see it on your own, you will soon understand why people needed to explain the bizarre formation. It is so unique that only legendary creatures are expected to have created it. Nature, of course, is a legend itself and has created this miracle in the same way it has created everything else around us.

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