[IMAGE: The Giant’s Causeway, by Photograph by code poet]
![[IMAGE: The Giant’s Causeway, by Photograph by code poet]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Causeway-code_poet-4.jpg/1280px-Causeway-code_poet-4.jpg){kind=link}
The Giant’s Causeway
Photograph by code poet, Around 50–60 million years ago
On the coast of Northern Ireland, around 40,000 stone columns fit together like a giant's paving stones and step down into the sea. Many have six sides. They look built.
According to legend, they were: the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill built a causeway across the sea to Scotland to fight a rival giant.
The geological explanation is almost as remarkable. Tens of millions of years ago, lava flowed across the area. As thick layers of it cooled and shrank, they cracked into columns, in the same way mud cracks into polygons as it dries. Slow, even cooling produced these remarkably regular shapes.
There are similar columns at Fingal's Cave in Scotland — right where the legend says the causeway reached.
Look for
- Columns with six sides, like a honeycomb
- Steps leading down into the sea
- Some columns with four, five, seven or eight sides