Antrim mountains. Bridge of giants in Ireland

It is a plain dissected by deep tectonic valleys. Highest point- Mount Trostan, 554 m high. The rocks that make up the plateau are Cretaceous and Mesozoic limestones.

Write a review on "Antrim (Plateau, Ireland)"

Excerpt from Antrim (Plateau, Ireland)

On Sunday there were business in Coleraine - if you go from Belfast towards Londonderry.
He took his family with him. We went there hastily and directly, along the highway. But they did not rush back, we decided to ride along the sea (see the map).

I'll make a reservation right away - I've been in those parts before, but to purposefully return to Belfast by the seashore is the first time.
We stopped and stopped in not all places worthy of attention. Not everything was photographed either. I will say more - the bulk of the breathtaking views remained, alas, behind the scenes (there was no goal to make a photo report).

First we stopped at Portstewart. Cool campus. There are five ice cream cafes on the embankment. At low tide, the sea recedes from the embankment and exposes coastal stones on which you can climb with pleasure.
The kids liked it.

Here, on the embankment, there is a monument to the soldiers who fell in the First World War. Many in Ireland, especially in the northern part of it, regard British soldiers as occupiers. Nevertheless, they are not at war with monuments here.

Then we drove in the direction of Bushmills. There is a lot to see along this road - both Giant's Causeway and White Rock beach... (Google rocks).
We stopped for a couple of minutes near the ruins of Dunluce castle.

The history of this well-worn castle (as well as other tourist details) is easily searched for by the already mentioned Google. Personally, I was deeply touched at one time by only one fact - at the beginning of the 17th, it seems, century, part of the castle collapsed into the sea. These were kitchens. The Abyss swallowed 7 cooks with all the utensils. In short, for me personally, this is a very special place.

Unfortunately, my photo cannot convey all the greatness of this picture - the blue sea, the blue sky, green grass, black ruins, and around the cows, cows ...

This is the village of Bushmills. The best Irish whiskey (of the famous brands) is made here.
You can go on an excursion and eat.

Ballycastle has a great fish and chips. In addition to traditional cod and haddock, there are scallops in batter. Three pounds for a half dozen. Yummy.

Seaview from Ballycastle

After Ballycastle, the road to Kushendal leaves a little to the side from the sea, into the mountains (here I lied on the map, drawing a quick route).
This section of the route I did not shoot at all, although there were plenty of breathtaking views in the mountains and interesting architecture in the villages.

And again the sea. On the other hand - behind the scenes - rocks to the sky. Signs of possible rockfalls are everywhere.

From time to time you chuckle some ruins with explanatory signs. If you don't plan your stop in advance, it is difficult to stop. The road is narrow.

And here the sea was left behind the scenes. And the slides aren't as steep as they were a few miles before. And even the weed grows.

On the grass - the invariable beef with rams.

From Larn one could continue the journey to Karrickfergus, where the Norman castle was preserved, safe and sound. But I’m often in Carrick anyway ... in short, they cut the path from Larn.

The bridge of giants is an unusual natural phenomenon that will not leave anyone indifferent, because it seems that it was created not by nature, but by some huge and powerful giant from a fairy tale.

In the northeastern part of Ireland, on the shores of the North Strait, there are the low Antrim Mountains, just over half a kilometer. They are based on black basalt, they were born thanks to the activity of ancient volcanoes located along a huge rift that torn Ireland from Great Britain 60 million years ago. The lava from their craters, frozen, formed these mountains on the Irish coast and on Hebrides, on the other side of the North Strait.

Basalt is a liquid, fluid in a molten form (from the slopes of volcanoes, basalt rivers sometimes pick up speed up to 50 kilometers per hour). After cooling, the basalt hardens and becomes covered with cracks, creating hexagonal prisms of the correct shape. From a distance, the basalt slopes look like large organs with thousands of black pipes.

And if the flow of lava reaches the sea, then such bizarre figures are born that it seems as if they appeared due to some kind of magic. One of these formations is the Giant's Bridge.

The pavement of the giants is located at the edge of the Antrim foothills. The original "road to nowhere" departs from the volcanic massif here. From a height, it looks like a dam paved with cobblestones, protruding into the sea for as much as 150 meters, and at the end it abruptly ends. But close up, you realize that the cobblestones of this paving stone are a little too big to be laid by a man: every one and a half meter in diameter ...

The Giants' Bridge rises above the sea by six (and in some places the height reaches 12) meters and consists of about 40 thousand basalt columns. It resembles an unfinished bridge over the strait. amazing formation serves as vivid evidence of powerful volcanic eruptions. Volcanic lava erupted from cracks and crevices in the ground with tremendous speed and power. It erupted so quickly that it didn’t have time to solidify before it covered the ground in deep, hot places with molten rock.

The Pavement of the Giants is sometimes called the Path of the Giants, and this is natural - after all, just looking at it, it is clear that if it served someone dear, then this someone was very large and strong. an example of an unusual formation formed by cooled lava. Although similar formations can be observed in other parts of the world. But the columns there are very different in size (from centimeters to meters in diameter) and often differ in the number of faces.

The most striking feature of the Giant's Bridge rocks is an orange layer in the form of a clear line on the vertical surface of the basalt. This layer creates a natural terrace, to which a path among the rocks leads. The terrace is 10-12 meters thick and consists of a soft, loose, red-brown material. In fact, this is an intra-basaltic layer - vegetation that has changed chemically under the influence of heat in humid conditions with a lack of oxygen.

Until several centuries ago, there were fierce discussions about the possible reasons for the formation of the Giant's Bridge. Some scientists argued that the surf had exposed petrified bamboo thickets here, others said that these were giant crystals born at the bottom of an ancient sea. Only with the passage of time was the volcanic origin of the fantastic columns and hexagons proven.

Obviously, the ancient Celts, who inhabited Ireland a thousand years ago, deified the Giant's Pavement. They also tried in every possible way to find an explanation for this unusual pavement, which greatly influenced their folklore and religion.

One of the legends says that Finn McCumal, deciding to engage in battle with the terrible one-eyed enemy Gall, so as not to get his feet wet, drove a number of columns into the bottom of the Irish Sea, creating a bridge here. Tired, he lay down to sleep. At this time, Gallus saw the road built by his enemy, and decided to deceive him - to attack first. On the shore, he saw a sleeping giant and was frightened by his huge one. "Who is this? Isn't it Finn McCool? " - he asked the giant's wife passing by. “What are you! This is just his son, he has not grown to his father's waist! " - she lied, deciding to intimidate the enemy even more. Horrified at the thought that he would have to fight this giant, Gallus rushed to run along the pavement to his shore. But on the way, he decided to destroy this bridge. He was afraid to touch only the first part of it, in fear of waking McCool. That is why the remains of the dam lead to the sea from the foot of the mountain ...

According to another legend, Finn's wife fed Gall with flat cakes, inside which she baked flat iron blanks, and when the giant began to break his teeth on them, she gave a second flat cake, a simple one, to her son, who calmly chewed it. Imagining how strong the father of this rather big baby is, Gallus fled in fear, breaking the bridge along the way.

For years, these legends were considered fictional. beautiful stories not even associated with some exact place. It was only at the end of the 17th century that the Bishop of Derry became convinced that the Pavement of the Giants really existed. But only a hundred years later, when an illustrated description of the unique natural phenomenon(the legend of the giant was also described there), a mass pilgrimage of tourists to the coast of Ireland began.

The popularity of the Giants' Bridge was also due to the fact that it is located only fifty kilometers from Belfast, and it is very easy to reach it in just a day on horseback. In addition, the path to the mysterious dam led through amazingly beautiful natural places.

There is no shortage of beautiful coves in these places, quiet beaches, rocky islets with deep caves and sharp gloomy headlands, protected by powerful basalt columns, on which foam waves crash with noise.

Curious that on east coast North Strait, off the coast of Scotland, in many places there are the same basalt blocks. They look especially impressive on the small island of Staff in the Hebrides archipelago, 120 kilometers from the Giants' Trail. Waves, grinding the shores of the island, exposed even rows of 40-meter columns. From a distance, the island appears to be resting on a foundation of these black, sharpened piles.

http://tainyplanet.mirtesen.ru

Giants Causeway Northern Ireland, UK

The Giants' Road is an area where there are about 40 thousand interconnected basalt columns formed as a result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The road is located in the northeast of Northern Ireland, about 3 km north of Bushmills. The tops of the columns form a springboard that starts at the foot of the cliff and disappears below the sea surface. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven, and eight corners.

One of the legends says that Finn McCumall, deciding to fight the monstrous one-eyed enemy 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. The Giants' Causeway gained worldwide fame at the end of the 17th century. And the first tourists appeared here in the 19th century.

Now tourists can walk along the basalt columns for about a kilometer along sea ​​coast... The highest is about 12 meters. The road has been declared an object world heritage UNESCO and national reserve... It is the most popular attraction in Northern Ireland.

5.