Ireland Photos 8

First thing in the morning I headed to the north coast.
I went to see the area called the Giant's Causeway, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Other than the general beauty of the area, the attraction are these things. Lots of interlocking mostly hexagonal basalt columns that look like they were intentionally arranged.
The legend is that mythical giant Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, or Finn McCool in English, built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his giant Scottish rival Benandonner.
Millions of years ago, County Antrim was a volcanic area. When molten rock was forced up through fissures in the chalk bed it form a lava plateau. Variations in the cooling rate resulted in this columnar structure.
The only way I can picture it is like when you squeeze Play-Doh through that machine that makes shapes.
The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli.
This smooth curved rock is called The Giant's Boot.
This is called The Organ.
The path to The Organ and beyond was closed due to a rockslide.
Rather than track back the low path I climbed these 162 steps up to the clifftop footpath.
The guys at the information booth suggested not taking the upper path because of the wind, but it wasn't dangerously bad.
People can walk all over the columns.
Lovely country though.
Just look at how uniform the columns are here in the parking lot. Amazing!