Epic British Vacay: Giant’s Causeway

June 30, 2024 (Day 11): Belfast, Northern Ireland

Ignoring the occasional misery caused by the head cold that appears to have settled in for the long haul, today was incredible. We had a Giant’s Causeway/Belfast tour that also ended up being a partial countryside tour and was absolutely breathtaking! The bus stopped near the ruins of a castle that felt like the epitome of Northern Ireland, placed as it was on a cliff next to the sea, and if you turned to look in the other direction, it felt like you were in the middle of a picture.

The tour guide told us the legends behind the Giants Causeway as we neared it, which absolutely will not sound the same if I repeat it – mostly because I don’t have a lilting Irish accent. But I’ll copy the story below from The Giant’s Causeway site:

“As legend has it, Northern Ireland was once home to a giant named Finn McCool (also called Fionn Mac Cumhaill). When another giant – Benandonner, across the Irish Sea in Scotland – threatened Ireland, Finn retaliated by tearing up great chunks of the Antrim coastline and hurling them into the sea. The newly-created path – the Giant’s Causeway – paved a route over the sea for Finn to reach Benandonner.

However, this turns out to be a bad idea as Benandonner is a massive giant, much bigger than Finn! In order to save himself, Finn retreats to Ireland and is disguised as a baby by his quick-thinking wife. When Benandonner arrives, he sees Finn disguised as a baby and realises that if a mere baby is that big, the father must be far larger than Benandonner himself!

Following this realisation, Benandonner rushes back to Scotland, tearing away as much of the Causeway as he can in his haste to put as much distance between Ireland and himself as possible. And thus, the myth of the Giant’s Causeway was born.”

Now our tour guide added in some more gruesome details about biting off fingers and the like, which seemed to be a staple of most of her Irish legend stories. Well, not necessarily the biting off fingers – but gruesome deaths in general.

All that aside, however, the Giant’s Causeway was just as amazing as I hoped it would be. The pictures really don’t do it justice. The rock formations were placed so perfectly that I half think their scientific explanation of it forming over years is wrong and an ancient civilization put it there. Or, you know, a creative God! We walked all over the rock formations, though we had to be careful because there were definitely no manmade steps, and no fences, and the wind was fierce (and cold!). At one point we walked over to the edge jutting out into the sea, realized everything was so wet that it must get waves fairly regularly, and Daniel suggested we retreat a little. We had no sooner walked away than a huge wave washed up right where we’d been standing! Another guy was not quite as lucky and got hit by waves twice!

On our way back towards Belfast, the tour guide took us the long way as we admired more incredible countryside, heard stories about cows sunning on beaches, saw a rope bridge, got lunch at a local pub (and Daniel finally got his Guinness!), appreciated sheep dotting the bright green landscape, found a disappearing lake, and drove along the sea.

The Belfast city tour was interesting in its own way – we didn’t get out of the bus – the tour guide just told us about buildings and things as we passed – but based on some of the stories and sites we saw, we were perfectly happy to stay safely in the bus. It turns out that the Troubles, the 30 year ‘war’ between the Catholic and Protestants in Belfast that only recently ‘ended’ is still an issue. So, they have built giant walls (20-30 feet tall) that are now covered in graffiti around large portions of the city. There are over 90 gates in these walls that are closed every night to keep the two sides from attacking each other under the cover of darkness! It was pretty crazy and felt like we were stepping back in time to some Soviet Block country. And finally, they brought us past the Titanic museum, which is shaped like a star – I wouldn’t mind going back to see that sometime – as well as the last remaining White Star Line vessel, until, finally, we were back on the ship, sitting in the hot tub and watching the Irish landscape go by.