Irish Giant Trail. Giant's Causeway - the construction of ancient giants

This place is not called in Northern Ireland! Trail of the giants, The Bridge of Giants, The Causeway of the Giants ... It looks like someone's powerful hands have driven many hexagonal piles into the Causeway Coast to build a huge bridge across the sea.

Looking at this miracle of nature, one involuntarily asks the question: weren't the aliens marked on the tip of the Emerald Isle?

STONE FORTRESS

The scale of this mysterious building is amazing. If you look at it from above, it really looks like a stone-paved road that stretches along the coast for 275 meters and goes into the Atlantic for another one and a half hundred meters.

The columns sometimes rush up, reaching a height of 12 meters, and sometimes they go down to 6 meters. Their total number is about 40 thousand. Most of of them on the cut has a hexagonal shape, but you can also find four-, five-, seven- and nine-cornered columns. The diameter of the pillars ranges from 30 to 60 centimeters, all of them have smooth tops.

From above, the stone pillars are somewhat reminiscent of a honeycomb, so tightly they are pressed against each other. Even a thin knife cannot be inserted between them.

Absolutely all pillars are dark in color, and all are incredibly solid. According to scientists, they consist mainly of basalt rich in magnesium and iron, which at the same time has a small amount of quartz. Thanks to this composition, the columns are able to successfully withstand the destructive effects of winds and stormy waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

THREE HEROES

The columns form three groups of sites. One group - the so-called Great Trail - is the largest pillars starting near rocky mountains... At first, they look like a cluster of huge stone steps, some of which reach 6 meters in height. Closer to the water, the steps gradually level out until they begin to form a stone-covered road that is 20 to 30 meters wide.

The second group of stones is the Middle and Small paths. These trails are located near the Great Trail and, in shape, are more like mounds than a road. Since each pillar has a flat top, it is possible to move carefully (especially near water, because they are extremely wet and slippery there) from one pillar to another.

This is what tourists use, who for the sake of such an attraction come here to distant lands.

Finally, the third group of stone giants lives on the island of Staffa (translated as "the island of pillars"). The island is located at a distance of 130 meters from the coast and continues the main theme of the Causeway Costa. There, on the island, the main attraction is located - the huge Fingal's cave.

This is real lost World... Firstly, you still need to get to the island, and the sea there is northern, restless, unpredictable. Secondly, the island is uninhabited, there are no benefits of civilization. Thirdly, climbing the island is also not easy, because it consists of tall basalt columns, similar to the Viking houses. Height above sea level in the most high point reaches 42 meters.

The entire coast is heavily indented and consists of numerous caves. Only in one place, in the south, the coast is more or less gentle. Fingal's cave is just there. The height of the cave reaches 30 meters, its length is 75 meters. The acoustics of the cave are unique, the sounds of the surf are heard throughout the cave, creating live music, as if in a concert hall, therefore Fingal's Cave is also called the Singing Cave.

By the way, Staffa Island is considered the territory of Scotland. For visitors, a wooden deck has been built here, along which you can go around the cave. There is no other way to visit it. Despite the fact that water splashes at the bottom of the cave, the entrance to the cave is so narrow that boats cannot penetrate there.

"Column" halls of Staffa Island and the Causeway Coast, despite the distance from each other, seem to be the same architectural ensemble... It seems that some intelligent creature wanted to build a huge stone bridge from Staffa Island to the Causeway Coast, but either it did not calculate its own strength, or the weather failed. In general, the mystery of nature.

SHAME SPAIN

Let's go back to the Causeway Coast. The columns are located around the cliffs, the names of which are one of the more bizarre. For example, two of them were named after musical instruments: Harps (columns from this cliff descend in a curved line to the coast) and Organa (straight and high pillars that are located near it, very much resemble this musical instrument).

There are cliffs with interesting names like Giant's Loom, Giant's Coffin, Giant's Cannons, Giant's Eyes. Here you can also look at the Giant's Shoe - a two-meter cobblestone that really resembles a shoe. It has even been calculated that a giant who wore such shoes must be at least 16 meters tall.

And one more interesting place on the Road of Giants - the Chimneys, which a few centuries ago frightened the already defeated Invincible Armada.

This happened for a banal reason. Some of the pillars of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland not only rise on the coast, but from the sea look like the chimneys of a huge castle. The Spaniards confused him with him and fired at enemy territory from cannons, that is, absolutely deserted land.

In short, they screwed up to the fullest. This battle for the Spaniards ended in tears: their ship crashed on the rocks, many people died. Artifacts in the Ulster Museum, which is located in Belfast, speak about that sad episode for Spanish history. They got there after they were raised from the bottom of the sea.

STONE BABY

The Irish have noteworthy legends regarding the origin of the Path of the Giants. One of them was composed by the Celts. In their opinion, the giant stone road was built by the Irish giant - Finn McCool. On it he wanted to cross the sea and fight with his old rival, the Scottish giant Ben Benandonner. When he got to the enemy, he saw that Ben was bigger and stronger, and gave a fight.

But it was too late. The Scotsman had already spotted him, got angry and set off in pursuit. Apparently, out of fear, Finn figured out how to take a powerful enemy by cunning. He asked his wife to swaddle him like a baby and leave him to sleep on the beach.

Seeing such a huge child, the Scotsman thought: what then is the father? And in fear he fled home. And out of impotence, he decided to destroy the path behind him in order to somehow harm the overseas giant. It is noteworthy that until the 17th century this legend was considered completely fictional, until the Bishop of Derry rediscovered the Path of the Giants, which then immediately became an Irish landmark.

ARISING FROM LAVA

The Giant's Causeway is a one-of-a-kind structure. There are no analogues in the world. It is not surprising that scientists have long debated how exactly the path originated. Some experts assured that the giant pillars are in fact huge crystals that a long time ago appeared at the bottom of the ancient sea. The sea retreated, and the pillars were on the surface.

Others said the pillars were actually a petrified bamboo forest. Allegedly in ancient times it was so warm here that exotic plants grew. Then the climate changed, it got cold, and the trees turned to stone. An alien version was also considered, but only by esotericists, scientists rejected it. In the end, everyone agreed that the volcano was to blame.

About 60 million years ago it happened here powerful eruption... The lava burst outward through a thick layer of limestone and covered the ground with a layer of 180 meters. After some time, while cooling, the lava began to slowly decrease in volume, and thanks to basalt, hexagonal cracks formed on its surface. As the inner layers of magma began to cool, these crevices began to deepen and form hexagonal columns.

This theory was confirmed by a group of scientists from Toronto, who after experiments were able to prove that the slower the magma cools, the larger the columns are. The secret to making things so amazing natural phenomenon how the Giant's Trail in Ireland was uncovered ... Or not?

Natalia BYKOVA

Let's digress for a moment from the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Let's visit together one of the most interesting and beautiful sights not only in Ulster, but in the whole island! We are talking about the Giant's Causeway (Giant's Trail, Giant's Road) - an unusual natural site, stretching out on the ocean coast.

Folk legends (I suspect, invented only a few decades ago), attribute the creation of this road to the giant Finn. Here's the story Wikipedia gives:

“Finn McKumal, deciding to fight the monstrous one-eyed adversary Goll, so as not to get his feet wet, drove a number of columns into the bottom of the Irish Sea and thus built a bridge. Tired, he lay down to rest. At this time, Goll himself crossed the bridge to Ireland, and appeared to Finn. Finn's wife, pointing to her sleeping husband, lied, saying that it was her baby son. In addition, she treated him to flat cakes, inside of which she baked flat iron pans, and when the giant began to break his teeth on them, she gave a second flat cake, a simple one, to "baby" Finn, who calmly ate it. Imagining what kind of giant the father of this rather big "baby" would be, Goll fled in horror, destroying the bridge along the way. "

In fact, this unusual object appeared due to a volcanic eruption. The solidified lava began to shrink and crack, resulting in a multitude of hexagonal columns emerging to the surface.

Both of these versions, both about the giant and about the volcano, can be seen in the video broadcast in tourist center at the entrance to this object. For those who are too lazy to watch, there is also given a free audio guide to Mostovaya Giants in one of the many downloaded languages, including Russian.

After listening to the first few completely childish stories about every pebble lying on the road, I hid this device in my pocket and never took it out again so as not to be distracted from the beauty around me.

1. A walk along the Giants' Bridge begins from this small bay.

2. Those who do not feel the strength to walk a few hundred meters to the main attraction on foot can take the bus. True, for a fee.

3. The protrusion in the sea in the center is the Giant's Causeway itself.

4. But we are not in a hurry there yet. After all, there are still so many beautiful stones around that you can climb!

6. However, a few minutes will be enough for this. We jumped like goats over stones, and it’s time to move to the main attraction of these regions!

8. The Bridge of the Giants consists of 40 thousand hexagonal (less often - seven and octagonal) pillars formed during the slow cooling of lava.

14. We decided to get to the very last pillar that goes into the sea. But the rescuer, seeing this attempt of ours, immediately stopped it - he began to whistle and wave his arms: "Don't go there!"

16. While we were going to the cape, we lost Natasha. The last time we saw her was when we appeared on Mostovaya itself. And now she was gone. We went around all the nooks again - there is no girl. This is bad. On the other hand, the ambulance did not arrive, the rescue helicopter did not arrive, and no one panicked: "Man in the water!" So, everything is all right with Natasha, she went on the footpath further. So sooner or later we will meet her. Thus, we consoled ourselves in the next hour.

18. The gates of the giants.

19. Highest stone pillar has a height of 12 meters.

21. Here the path ended with a fence with the inscription: "Please do not go further. Dangerous!" We, of course, climbed over this obstacle.

22. We got to the very end of the path.

23. We decided to climb up to look at the Giants' Bridge from above.

25. The mountains on the horizon are regular Ireland, not North.

26. Isn't that how you envisioned Ireland?

While walking along the top of the cliff, we received an SMS from Natasha (there was no connection at the bottom). The girl turns out to have reached the very end hiking trail, going on top, and this is a few kilometers from us. So our company reunited only an hour later at lunch at the tourist center.

Ahead of us was the city of Derry (also known as Londonderry) - the last landmark of Northern Ireland on our way.

Thank you for processing the photos

Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland - unique a natural phenomenon: The interconnected basalt hexagonal columns create amazing landscapes that resemble a natural pavement. The trail is the result of activity ancient volcano; the protrusions were formed during the cooling of the lava flow. There is another version of the appearance of the bizarre trail: the road was built by the hero of Celtic myths Finn McKumal.

The bridge of the giants really could have served as a road: columns of different heights (from 6 to 12 meters) seem to be like a staircase, and cracks are the result of inaccurate planning of the nature path.

In 1986, the Bridge of Giants was inscribed on the List World heritage UNESCO.

To visit the Trail of the Giants, you should choose comfortable clothes and shoes, best of all with rubberized soles.

It is better to plan a trip to the Giants' Bridge for the period from late spring to autumn. There are no guided tours of the Giant's Trail in winter. Be careful: the weather in the north of Ireland is quite changeable. In strong winds and rain, it can be dangerous to approach the cliff.

Tourist office where you can get detailed information o Bridge of Giants and buy souvenirs, located at 44 Causeway Road. When buying a ticket, tourists receive an audio guide in Russian (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Japanese and Mandarin are also available).

How to get there

The Bridge of Giants is located in the northeast of Northern Ireland, 100 km from Belfast. The bus service connects the Giant's Trail and Belfast: tourist buses run (mainly in summer time), can also be reached by bus 252, which has a circular route along the scenic Antrim coastline.

From late spring to early autumn, you can get to the Giants' Bridge by tourist buses from Bushmills, as well as from another attraction of Northern Ireland -. During the summer, minibuses also run from the tourist office.

From Belfast and Londonderry, you can also take the Translink trains (www.translink.co.uk). Closest to the Giants' Bridge railway stations- Portrush and Coleraine, from where regular buses run to the coast.

Steam Railway connects Bushmills and the Giant's Trail; the station is located 200 meters from the main entrance to the natural park.

Travel time from Belfast by car is about an hour and a half. Follow the M2 until the intersection with the A26. Turning right, follow until the turn onto M2. After passing Ballymena, continue on the A26 to Ballymoney. Turning right, follow Ballybogy Road until the intersection with Priestland Road. Turn right again and continue to Causeway Road.

Location

The Giants' Bridge is located in County Antrim at c.

In the northeast of the island of Ireland, on the shores of the North Strait leading from the Atlantic to the Irish Sea, the low Antrim Mountains rise slightly above half a kilometer. They are composed of black basalts - traces of ancient volcanoes that rose along the giant rift that separated Ireland from Great Britain 60 million years ago. Covers of black lava from their craters formed the coastal mountains on the Irish coast and in the Hebrides, across the North Strait. An amazing breed - this basalt! Liquid, easily flowing in molten form (basalt flows sometimes rush along the slopes of volcanoes at a speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour), it cracks when it cools and solidifies, forming regular hexagonal prisms. From a distance, the basalt cliffs resemble huge organs with hundreds of black pipes. And when a stream of lava flows into the sea, sometimes such bizarre formations appear that it is difficult not to believe in their magical origin.

This kind of joke of nature can be observed at the foot of Antrim. A kind of "road to nowhere" is separated from the volcanic massif. From above, it looks like a dam, paved with hexagonal paving stones, extending into the sea for 150 meters, and then suddenly breaking off. But the "cobblestones" of this paving stone are a little too big: each one and a half meter in diameter! The dam rises six meters above the sea and consists of approximately 40,000 basalt columns. It looks like an unfinished bridge across the strait, conceived by some fabulous giant, and bears the name Giants Causeway ... As early as 200 years ago, fierce controversy was raging around the alleged reasons for its appearance. Some scientists believed that the surf exposed a petrified bamboo forest here, others thought that these were huge crystals formed in the waters of the ancient sea. Only later was the volcanic origin of the amazing hexahedrons proved.

It is clear that the ancient Celts, who inhabited Ireland a thousand years ago, could not help but notice the Giant's Bridge. And having noticed, they could not help but try to find an explanation for this unusual building, to the best of their imagination and in accordance with the traditions of their folklore. One of the Old Irish legends tells that the Bridge was built in time immemorial by the giant Finn McCool to attack his sworn enemy - the giant Finn Gall, who lived in the Hebrides. Finn McCool hammered the pillars one at a time into the seabed until he built a dam across the entire strait, after which he lay down to sleep before the fight. Meanwhile, Finn Gull saw the road laid by his rival, and decided to outwit him - to attack first. On the shore, he saw a sleeping giant and was amazed at his enormous growth. "Who is this? Isn't it Finn McCool? " he asked the giant's wife, who had approached. “What are you! This is just his son, he will not reach his father even to the waist! " - she lied, deciding to intimidate the enemy. Horrified at the thought that he would have to fight such a giant, Finn Gull rushed to run along the dam to his native shore. But on the way, he caught himself and began to destroy the bridge. Only the beginning he was afraid to touch him, fearing to wake up McCool. That is why the remains of the dam go into the sea from the foot of Antrim ...

For a long time, this legend was considered just a fictional poetic story not associated with any specific place. Only at the end of the 17th century did the Bishop of Derry become convinced of the reality of the existence of the Bridge of the Giants. But only a hundred years later, when an illustrated description of an unusual natural phenomenon was published with the attachment of the text of an ancient legend, a mass pilgrimage of the public to the coast of the strait began. The popularity of the Giants' Bridge was also facilitated by the fact that it is located only fifty kilometers from big city Belfast, and it was not difficult to reach it in a day on horseback or in a carriage. In addition, the path to the mysterious natural dam ran along surprisingly scenic spots... On the coast of County Antrim, there is no shortage of beautiful coves framed by black lava cliffs, cozy beaches, rocky islets with mysterious caves and high gloomy capes, protected by slender basalt columns, against which the foamy wave of the surf crashes loudly ...

I wonder what on east coast In the North Strait, off the coast of Scotland, basalt covers are also found in many places. They look especially impressive on the small island of Staff in the Hebrides archipelago, 120 kilometers from the Finn McCool Bridge. The waves, undermining the base of the island, revealed slender rows of 40-meter basalt columns, which constitute the foundation of Staffa. From a distance it seems that the island rests on a palisade of black faceted piles.

In one place, the sea washed away the less durable part of the lava flow, carving out in it a giant cave-niche 60 meters deep. Its walls, base and vault are composed of basalt hexagons similar to those that formed the Giant's Pavement. At one time, Staff Island was visited by the President of London geographic society, the famous naturalist Joseph Banks, a member of Cook's maiden voyage. Shocked by the scale of the grandiose cave, quite suitable for the habitation of a giant, he suggested that it be named after the legendary rival Finn McCool. The name, coined by Banks, stuck, and now both giants from ancient tradition have at the shores of the Northern Strait on a unique natural monument associated with the history of their rivalry.

PHOTOS OF BRIDGE GIANTS IN IRELAND

In the northeast of the island of Ireland, on the shores of the North Strait leading from the Atlantic to the Irish Sea, the low Antrim Mountains rise just over half a kilometer.

They are composed of black basalts - traces of ancient volcanoes that rose along the giant rift that separated Ireland from Great Britain 60 million years ago.

The blankets of black lava that poured from their craters formed the coastal mountains on the Irish coast and in the Hebrides, on the other side of the North Strait.

An amazing breed - this basalt! Liquid, easily flowing in molten form (basalt flows sometimes rush along the slopes of volcanoes at a speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour), it cracks when it cools and solidifies, forming regular hexagonal prisms.

From a distance, the basalt cliffs resemble huge organs with hundreds of black pipes. And when a stream of lava flows into the sea, sometimes such bizarre formations appear that it is difficult not to believe in their magical origin.

This kind of joke of nature can be observed at the foot of Antrim. A kind of "road to nowhere" is separated from the volcanic massif.

From above, it looks like a dam, paved with hexagonal paving stones, extending into the sea for 150 meters, and then suddenly breaking off. But the "cobblestones" of this paving stone are a little too big: each one and a half meter in diameter!

The dam rises six meters above the sea and consists of approximately 40,000 basalt columns. It looks like an unfinished bridge across the strait, conceived by some fabulous giant, and is called the "Bridge of the Giants".

As early as 200 years ago, fierce controversy over the alleged reasons for its appearance was raging. Some scientists believed that the surf exposed a petrified bamboo forest here, others thought that these were huge crystals formed in the waters of the ancient sea.

Only later was the volcanic origin of the amazing hexahedrons proved.

It is clear that the ancient Celts, who inhabited Ireland a thousand years ago, could not help but notice the Giant's Bridge. And having noticed, they could not help trying to find an explanation for this unusual building, to the best of their imagination and in accordance with the traditions of their folklore.

One of the Old Irish legends tells that the Bridge was built in time immemorial by the giant Finn McCool to attack his sworn enemy, the giant Finn Gall, who lived in the Hebrides.

Finn McCool hammered the pillars one at a time into the seabed until he built a dam across the entire strait, after which he lay down to sleep before the fight.

Meanwhile, Finn Gull saw the road laid by his rival, and decided to outwit him - to attack first. On the shore, he saw a sleeping giant and was amazed at his enormous growth.

"Who is this? Isn't it Finn McCool? " he asked the giant's wife, who had approached.

“What are you! This is just his son, he will not reach his father even to the waist! " - she lied, deciding to intimidate the enemy.

Horrified at the thought that he would have to fight such a giant, Finn Gull rushed to run along the dam to his native shore. But on the way, he caught himself and began to destroy the bridge. Only the beginning he was afraid to touch him, fearing to wake up McCool. That is why the remains of the dam go into the sea from the foot of Antrim ...

For a long time, this legend was considered just a fictional poetic story not associated with any specific place. Only at the end of the 17th century did the Bishop of Derry become convinced of the reality of the existence of the Bridge of the Giants.

But only a hundred years later, when an illustrated description of an unusual natural phenomenon was published with the attachment of the text of an ancient legend, a mass pilgrimage of the public to the coast of the strait began.

The popularity of the Giants' Bridge was also facilitated by the fact that it is located only fifty kilometers from the large city of Belfast, and it was not difficult to reach it in a day on horseback or in a carriage.

In addition, the path to the mysterious natural dam ran through amazingly picturesque places. On the coast of County Antrim, there is no shortage of beautiful coves framed by black lava cliffs, cozy beaches, rocky islets with mysterious caves and high gloomy headlands protected by slender basalt columns, against which the foamy wave of the surf crashes loudly ...

It is interesting that on the eastern coast of the North Strait, off the coast of Scotland, basalt covers are also found in many places. They look especially impressive on the small island of Staff in the Hebrides archipelago, 120 kilometers from the Finn McCool Bridge.

The waves, undermining the base of the island, revealed slender rows of 40-meter basalt columns, which constitute the foundation of Staffa. From a distance it seems that the island rests on a palisade of black faceted piles.

In one place, the sea washed away the less durable part of the lava flow, carving out in it a giant cave-niche 60 meters deep. Its walls, base and vault are composed of basalt hexagons similar to those that formed the Giant's Pavement.

At one time, Staff Island was visited by the president of the London Geographical Society, the famous naturalist Joseph Banks, a participant in Cook's maiden voyage. Shocked by the scale of the grandiose cave, quite suitable for the habitation of a giant, he proposed to name it Fingal's Grotto, in honor of the legendary rival Finn McCool.

The name invented by Banks stuck, and now both giants from ancient legend have a unique natural monument associated with the history of their rivalry off the coast of the Northern Strait.

The gloomy picturesqueness of Fingal's Cave, already from the 18th century, inspired romantic poets to create poems and ballads about this giant's dwelling.

The Bridge of the Giants, or, as it was also called, the Path of the Giants, was no less popular with writers. The grotto and the trail are described in many novels and short stories of the past. The basalt monuments were paid tribute to Byron and Shelley, Thackeray and Fielding.

These romantic rocks were also sung by Russian poets, in particular Zhukovsky. Later, in the XX century, the composer Mendelssohn wrote, having visited Scotland, his famous piece of music "Fingal's Cave".

And Joseph Banks, already mentioned by us, appreciated these wonders of nature simply and expressively: “Compared to this, what are cathedrals and palaces erected by man? Just toy houses! "