Bushmills and Causeway Coast, County Antrim

Yesterday, I caught the bus from Ballycastle to Bushmills, and then walked back about half the way to Dunseverick before bussing back home again. It was an intense and tiring day. 

The north Antrim Coast is home to the Giant's Causeway, famous for a particular geological formation caused by molten basalt from a volcano cooling quickly to form hexagonal pillars. The giant of the legend is (again) Finn MacCool, who wanted to fight a rival giant from Scotland called Benandonner. Finn built the causeway to get to Scotland, but then he realised that the Scottish giant was much bigger then he, so her ran away. Finn's wife Oonagh dressed Finn up as a baby, to trick the Scottish giant into thinking that the real Finn must be even bigger than his child. Benandonner ran away, tearing up the rest of the causeway so Finn couldn't get to him. The bit we can see now is the bit on the Irish side Benandonner left behind. So basically, it's a story of two big guys running away from each other. 

Seeing the causeway, you can easily understand why people believe it was made, not formed. The problem for me was the 2000 other tourists who had also gone to see it that sunny Saturday. Fortunately, the place is a bit like the Great Ocean Road - ALL the tourists go to see the Causeway (the equivalent of our 12 Apostles) and no one much goes to see the nearby sections, where the same geological formations exist. I saw the bit that (sort of) looks like the start of Finn's road, and left after ten minutes. I spent about four hours walking along the cliffs to the west, which also have the same geology - it just doesn't go down into the water in the same way. All the people I met were local Irish, who were avoiding the actual causeway section, for the same reason. 

When I got home I ate, and slept, and slept. Great day, but all those stairs were tiring.