Sunday, July 12, 2015

2nd Day in Ireland: The Giant's Causeway

This is a continuation of a photo diary of Josh's and my honeymoon last summer.



The Giant's Causeway is a mysterious collection of probably millions of narrow, cylindrical stone structures that span across the Irish Sea between Ireland and Scotland.  

The causeway was created when the Irish giant, Finn McCool, threw the rocks into the sea to create a bridge to Scotland because he wanted to fight a Scottish giant, Benandonner.

Giant's Causeway

Geologists, however, who are an unimaginative lot, insist that the basalt structures are from the remains of volcano.  

Personally I'm sticking to the Finn McCool story.  I don't see how the rocks could look so man (or giant) made but be naturally constructed.




















The Pipe Organ


The Boot of Finn McCool's Grandmother who rescued him from drowning.  (His father threw Finn into the moat for being "too puny" for a giant.)

















These cylindrical rocks continue into the water and reach all the way to the shore of Scotland.





Duncastle, near the Giant's Causeway.  Duncastle is thought to be the inspiration for C.S. Lewis' Cair Paravel in his Narnia Chronicles

This is only part of the second day.  Next post will be about our time in Belfast.

4 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

That looks to be breathtaking Sharon. The natural look unusual and surreal.

Duncastle looks to be the perfect human creation to accompany such natural features.It really looks like something out of a fantasy story.

Unknown said...

Lovely! But I always "approach" Ireland with a certain sadness because of its long, troubled history (going back hundreds of years because of England's oppressive colonial/plantation policies). I would love to visit there, but it will never happen. Instead, I get to enjoy it vicariously via your posting. Thank you.

Sharon Wilfong said...

HI Brian. You're right. That's probably why I love fairy tales and folk lore so much.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi RT. You're right about Ireland's history. I felt that sadness when I was there. In fact I think that I prefer reading the folk lore about Ireland than see the depressed state that many of the people are living in.