The Giant’s Causeway belongs to the many things that the Irish people are proud of. It is an extraordinary landscape that was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1986. Also a National Nature Reserve as per a 1987 proclamation of the Department of Northern Ireland, this tourist attraction consists of thousands of interlocking basalt columns in a headland facing the North Atlantic Ocean’s North Channel towards Scotland.

The sight of these columns is awe-inspiring as they appear from the sea, forming hexagonal stepping stones to the top of the cliffs. Geologists believe that these natural formations were the result of intense volcanic eruptions in the area around 50 to 60 million years ago. But it formed a unique natural formation, and an amazing legend has been woven around the origin of the Giant’s Causeway.

If old Irish folks are to be believed, these ancient rock formations were actually part of a bridge that their mythical warrior Finn McCool built to cross the sea to do battle against a much bigger Scottish archrival, Benandonner. But the expected confrontation of warriors did not happen as Finn’s wife disguised his husband as their baby son. Seeing that with such an infant so huge, Benandonner concluded that Finn, the father, must be a giant. The Scottish warrior fled but destroyed Finn’s bridge which then became the awesome natural wonder in the county of Antrim, Northern Ireland.