Located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles, Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. Its tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places.
The Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau during the Paleogene period. It was around some 50 to 60 million years ago. Due to rapid cooling of Lava, contraction occurred and while contraction in the vertical direction reduced the flow thickness, horizontal contraction could only be accommodated by cracking throughout the flow. The size of the columns is basically determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene period.
There is a legend woven around the place. It is said that, the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. There are several versions of this as for one of them saying that, Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. Another modification of the original is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.
When going through the flora and fauna found here in Giant’s Causeway, the area is ruled by sea birds such as fulmar, petrel, cormorant, shag, redshank guillemot and razorbill, while the weathered rock formations host a number of rare and unusual plants including sea spleenwort, hare's foot trefoil, vernal squill, sea fescue and frog orchid. A stromatolite colony was reportedly found at the Giants Causeway in October 2011 - an unusual find as stromatolites are more commonly found in warmer waters with higher saline content than that found at the causeway.
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