The Giant’s Causeway:

Table of Con­tents Show

The Giant’s Cause­way:

Overview:

Where:

Best time to Vis­it:

Explore:

Cost:

Get­ting there:

Fun Fact:

Best pho­to spot:

Overview:

The stuff of leg­ends, the geo­log­i­cal par­adise of North­ern Irish Giant’s cause­way is 40,000 awe inspir­ing beau­ti­ful and moun­tain­ous basalt columns that sit on the edge of the scenic cause­way coast­line, that were appar­ent­ly formed when the Irish giant Finn McCool picked a fight with the Scot­tish giant Benan­don­ner and sin­gle hand­ed­ly cre­at­ed the large ‘step­ping stones’ of the giants cause­way to reach and con­front his foe.

Alter­na­tive­ly, for those with a sci­en­tif­ic mind, the Giant’s cause­way was formed some 60 mil­lion years ago dur­ing the Pale­o­gene age, as a result of Lava cool­ing when it reached the sea – either way the columns, which reach some 25 metres in height and are set against the back­drop of serene 100 metre cliffs are a true won­der and the pin­na­cle of the famous North­ern Irish coast­line, offer­ing not just a fit­ting finale to one of the worlds great­est dri­ving routes, but a true geo­log­i­cal won­der with stun­ning views over the Irish coast and a deserv­ing leg­end tale to accom­pa­ny this nat­ur­al won­der of the world.

Where:

The Giants cause­way (Bush­mills, BT57 8SU) is locat­ed on the cause­way coast­line in North­ern Ire­land in the Coun­ty of Antrim with the town of Port­ballintrae about a mile out from the cause­way offer­ing access to a stun­ning walk­a­ble beach path that leads straight to the won­der and offers stun­ning view of the coast­line as well.

Best time to Visit:

While the cause­way is acces­si­ble all year round – the best time to vis­it is unques­tion­ably in the British sum­mer­time – when the weath­er will be warm, they’ll be less chance of rain and ice cream will be plen­ti­ful. If vis­it­ing it’s advised to time your vis­it to avoid the hours of 11am-3pm as this is peak tourist time and can lead to over­crowd­ing – besides you wouldn’t want to miss the sun­rise or sun­set pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Explore:

The cause­way itself allows for climb­ing, pos­ing and explor­ing – and for those brave enough a plat­form to enter the Irish sea, with a vis­i­tors’ cen­tre there to detail the his­to­ry and lega­cy of the 40,000 basalt columns.

For a more inti­mate explo­ration of the won­der it’s cer­tain­ly advised to climb the shep­herds steps – 160 steps that take you to the top of a cliff for stun­ning view, and make sure you check out the amphithe­atre sec­tion on the ground floor for that all impor­tant sun­set pho­to snap.

Along­side this, the unique rock for­ma­tions which include Finn McCool’s wish­ing chair and Giants boot make for inter­est­ing view­ing as does a trip across the near­by Car­rick-a-Rede rope bridge which again offers stun­ning view of the north­ern Irish coast­line.

For those wish­ing to tru­ly expe­ri­ence both the beau­ty of the cause­way and the cause­way coast­line, a dri­ving or walk­ing trip is rec­om­mend­ed from at least the base of Dun­luce Cas­tle where along­side the cas­tle ruins, you get the chance to walk along the coast­line tak­ing in white sandy beach­es, stun­ning cliffs, scenic shore­lines and final arriv­ing at the won­der of the cause­way.

Cost:

The cause­way is actu­al­ly free to vis­it – so your main expen­di­ture will like­ly be park­ing – with park­ing on the offi­cial carpark set­ting you back 12 pounds.

How­ev­er to avoid this and to take in more of the cause­way it’s rec­om­mend­ed for those jour­ney­ing by car to park up in the town of Port­ballintrae or fur­ther afoot (just be sure to avoid park­ing on the green­ery lead­ing up to the cause­way) to save your­self a bit of extra cash – which can then be put towards enjoy­ing either a tra­di­tion­al Irish drink or a spot of ice cream as you take in the won­der.

Getting there:

The cause­way is extreme­ly acces­si­ble with plen­ty of park­ing spots in either the town of Port­ballintrae or at the won­der itself.

With the cause­way also being acces­si­ble by bus from the near­est air­port of der­ry by 2 hours (and 2 changes) for 10 pounds or being a short 61km dri­ve from Belfast – mak­ing it entire­ly pos­si­ble to get to the won­der in back in a short day trip from the cap­i­tal of North­ern Ire­land – although it’s rec­om­mend­ed to spend a day or two both explor­ing the won­der and the beau­ty of the cause­way coast­line.

Fun Fact:

On a clear day (and with the aid of bin­noc­u­lars) you can see the coast­line of Scot­land – mak­ing it pos­si­ble to envis­age the route Finn McCool would have tak­en across the Irish Sea to con­front his rival.

Best photo spot:

For a scenic panoram­ic shot of the cause­way the shep­herds steps offer a unique van­tage point — and for the mon­ey sun­set shot a trip down to the base of the rocks where the full beau­ty of the Irish coast can be seen can’t be missed.