"The lunar landscape of the Giant's Causeway, lurking below the gaunt sea wall where the land ends, must have struck wonder into the hearts of the ancient Irish. This was giants work and, more particularly, the work of the giant Finn McCool, the Ulster warrior and commander of the King of Ireland's armies."

"Legend has it that Finn was pleased to inhabit this draughty Antrim headland: - "He lived most happy and content, Obeyed no law and paid no rent." And when he fell in love with a lady giant on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides, he built this highway to bring her across to Ulster."

For those who don't believe in such tales, the Causeway is actually a mass of basalt columns packed tightly together. The Causeway's a geological freak, caused by volcanic eruptions and cooling lava, the tops of the columns forming stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot which then disappear under the sea. Altogether there are 40,000 of these stone columns, mostly hexagonal but some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 40 feet high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 feet thick in places.

Information courtesy Northern Ireland Tourist Board

Further information on the Giant's Causeway