{"id":628523,"date":"2026-08-09T11:41:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628523\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:41:23","slug":"drama-on-the-giants-causeway-its-a-very-unusual-formation-i-have-never-seen-that-before-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628523\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama on the Giant\u2019s Causeway: \u2018It\u2019s a very unusual formation. I have never seen that before\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s Coastline: Stories from our sea frontier<\/p>\n

New and emerging threats, from climate change to security in a more politically volatile world, put greater focus on Ireland\u2019s island status and our coastline.<\/p>\n

Stretching to more than 7,500km, the coast of Ireland\u2019s mainland and offshore islands covers roughly the same distance across Africa at its widest point, or the path of a flight from New York to Moscow.<\/p>\n

That distance creates challenges when it comes to policing a long coastline such as Co Cork\u2019s against drug traffickers. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere, rising sea waters and changing weather patterns pose risks to existing homes and businesses situated next to the sea, including along the Co Wexford coast.<\/p>\n

The coastline is also a vital resource for the tourism and leisure industries, bringing value to the local economies of the 19 counties that touch the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea. <\/p>\n

In this series, The Irish Times looks at lives and lifestyles around the country\u2019s coastline along with the challenges facing some on the island\u2019s sea frontier.<\/p>\n

It is a perfect day for the Giant\u2019s Causeway.<\/p>\n

The rain is coming in sideways off the Atlantic, gathering in pools on top of the famous hexagonal stones while white-topped waves, stirred to a frenzy by the wind, smash against the rocks, sending spray everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the stormy weather really makes it,\u201d says Matthew Roe from Liverpool. \u201cYou can stand near and see the crashing waves, and it makes it more atmospheric and enthralling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt adds to the drama,\u201d says his mother, Adele Haase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special,\u201d says Astrid Huwe from Berlin. \u201cIt\u2019s really different to everything we\u2019ve seen before.\u201d She searches for the words; The Irish Times suggests impressive, rugged, wild. \u201cAll of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the key point is unique,\u201d adds her husband, Christoph. \u201cIt\u2019s a very unusual formation of rock \u2013 we have been to Norway, Iceland, everywhere in the north, and I have never seen that before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Irish coast, obviously, is very beautiful.\u201d They have travelled \u201cfrom Kerry, all the way up here and around the island, and this is … something you can barely see anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perched on the Co Antrim coast, the Giant\u2019s Causeway is a geological wonder, a site of myth and legend, and one of the North\u2019s most popular tourist attractions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have one image that says Northern Ireland, I think it\u2019s a Causeway column,\u201d says Jennifer Michael, business development manager with the National Trust.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s coastline \u2013 erosion in Wexford: \u2018There\u2019s nobody protecting my land for me\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It is the result of intense volcanic activity 60 million years ago, as lava flows cooled and cracked to create the more than 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that spill into the sea near Bushmills. <\/p>\n

Today it is the largest, and most accessible, example of this geological phenomenon across the globe, and a Unesco World Heritage Site \u2013 one of only four, alongside the Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne prehistoric sites, Skellig Michael, and the nearby Gracehill Moravian settlement, on the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good geological example of the Pangaea continent breaking up, so that\u2019s one of the reasons for the Unesco designation,\u201d says Michael. \u201cIt gives us an insight into the formation of the Earth as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA tourist struggles across the Giant’s Causeway. Photograph: Stephen Davison <\/p>\n

It is special in other ways too. The Causeway holds a raft of other designations, including Special Area of Conservation and Area of Special Scientific Interest, and the only one to boast its own giant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started getting really interested in myths and then I read about the Giant\u2019s Causeway and I really wanted to go here,\u201d saysJuliette Hennessy (10), from Mornington, Co Meath. <\/p>\n

She hops down from where she has been clambering over the stones to tell the story of Finn McCool. \u201cIt\u2019s about an Irish giant and a Scottish giant, and they had a fight, and the Irish giant made a causeway to Scotland. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Scottish giant got mad and he came all the way to Ireland, and the Irish giant pretended to be a baby, so he\u2019d be scared away because the Irish giant was massive in a little cot. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Scottish giant ran away, destroying the causeway.\u201d <\/p>\n

Has it lived up to her expectations? \u201cI think it\u2019s amazing,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very different seeing the place through her eyes,\u201d says her mother, Cathy. \u201cThe whole story is brought to life \u2013 you can see the magic again.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Giant\u2019s Causeway attracts more than 600,000 visitors per year, though it is still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, before which numbers topped more than a million. <\/p>\n

The stones have long brought travellers to this northern coast; among the stories told in its visitor centre are that of Susanna Drury, a Dublin painter chiefly known for her watercolours of the Causeway, which are credited with launching it as a tourist destination in the 18th century.<\/p>\n

On this weekday afternoon, the stones are packed with people; many simply stand on this ancient landscape looking out to sea, their figures silhouetted against the stormy sky. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Giant’s Causeway. Photograph: Stephen Davison <\/p>\n

It is one of the top visitor attractions in the North. Almost 40 per cent of people who come to the Giant\u2019s Causeway are from North America, with 34 per cent from Ireland (north and south) and Britain, and the remainder from Europe and the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Visitors from the South are a \u201cgrowing market\u201d for the Causeway, says Michael. \u201cWeeks like this week, with the Fleadh in Belfast, we do expect a lot of visitors [from the Republic] that maybe haven\u2019t come to Northern Ireland to be visiting for the first time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though there are no recent figures for the Causeway\u2019s financial contribution to the economy, it is significant; according to Tourism Northern Ireland, the wider Causeway Coast and Glens council area accounted for almost a quarter of overnight trips in the North in 2025, generating a spend of \u00a3180 million.<\/p>\n

For the National Trust, which has the guardianship of the Giant\u2019s Causeway, the site\u2019s popularity helps it look after other sites. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, we are a conservation charity, and we\u2019re here to protect these special places,\u201d says Ciara Allen, interim general manager of the trust on the north coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe care for multiple places that don\u2019t have a lot of visitors going in but still are very important and still need the upkeep, so [the Giant\u2019s Causeway] really helps us do what is at our core as a conservation charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cI do it [the stones] day in and day out, and I don\u2019t think you ever lose that appreciation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we are out in markets promoting the Giant\u2019s Causeway, there\u2019s that sense of pride, and that sense of having it on our doorstep. We\u2019re very, very lucky.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Coastline: Stories from our sea frontier New and emerging threats, from climate change to security in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[17296,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,954,7,8],"class_list":["post-628523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-antrim","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117065370842384445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}