Address: Northern Ireland, 3 km from Bushmills
Coordinates: 55 ° 14'25.3 "N 6 ° 30'40.3" W
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Short description
The village of Bushmills, located in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, is known for two attractions. This is "Old Bushmills" - the oldest whiskey distillery in Europe and a natural phenomenon called "Giants 'Causeway" or "Giants' Trail".
From a distance, the "giant road" looks like an ordinary rocky stretch of the coast, but getting closer, you can see how tens of thousands of boulders, arches and columns go down the stairs into the depths of the sea, resembling a giant path. A few centuries ago, scientific discussions about the origin of the Giants' Causeway did not subside.
Some researchers argued that the Trail of the Giants are huge crystals born at the bottom of an ancient sea, and opponents objected to them: "No, here the surf exposed a petrified bamboo forest." Today, the scientific world has come to a consensus: the largest lava plain in Europe existed on the territory of County Antrim.
It was based on basalt erupting from the mouth of an ancient volcano. The molten basalt solidified and cracked to form regular hexagonal prisms. Together, these prisms create an amazing pattern that vaguely resembles a honeycomb. The Giants' Road has 40 thousand basalt structures... The stone columns are so tightly adjacent to each other that one might think that they were driven into the ground by an ancient hero. The dark color of the columns and their exceptional hardness are explained by the fact that they are composed of basalt with a low concentration of quartz, but rich in magnesium and iron. This reduces the rate of their destruction due to the impact of the stormy waters of the Atlantic.
The Giant's Causeway in Celtic Myths
Back in the III century. n. e. the Celts sang the Giants' Causeway in legends. In the olden days, there was a giant named Finn McKumal in Ireland. Opposite him, across the strait, settled the one-eyed evil son of the gods - Goll Mac Morna.
Finn decided to fight his enemy neighbor, but he could not swim and began to build a bridge. For 7 days and 7 nights, Finn did not close his eyes, dragged huge stone rods, and in the end he got tired and went home to sleep. Meanwhile, Goll crossed the bridge into Ireland and reported to Finn.
Finn's wife was not at a loss: she swaddled her husband like a baby and lied to Goll that it was her sleeping son. In addition, the woman treated Goll to pancakes, inside of which she baked flat pans. The enemy broke his teeth on them. And the second cake, a simple wife gave the "baby", and he ate it with appetite. If the kid is so huge and so easily bites the pancakes that I break my teeth on, Goll thought, then how strong should his father be? Frightened in earnest, Goll rushed to run, breaking the entire bridge behind him.
Causeway of the Giants - Geological Wonders in Stone
In addition to the Path of the Giants, on the same plateau you can see the "Organ of the Giants"... It consists of 60 tall straight columns that resemble the pipes of a huge organ - a musical instrument. Another attraction of the Causeway of the Giants - "Chimneys" - is associated with the Spanish "Invincible Armada". Under the influence of waves and wind, pillars of an unusual shape were formed on the basalt cliff. From the side of the sea, they can be mistaken for the chimneys of a huge castle.
Legend has it: in 1588 the Spaniards from the La Girona ship, fleeing after the defeat of the Armada, began shelling the cliff, deciding that in front of them was the enemy's castle. The ship "La Girona" crashed on the rocks, taking with it 1,300 lives. La Girona's treasures from the seabed are kept at the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
