Giants' Road, Carrickfergus Castle, Craigmore Viaduct and other beautiful places in Northern Ireland. Giants trail in ireland

Mysterious Northern Ireland is fraught with many wonders. One of them is the amazing Path of the Giants. It seems as if an unknown sculptor worked for thousands of years, erecting a road from stone columns. This unique natural landmark was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and it is impossible to argue with this decision.

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In our article.

Tens of thousands of skillfully carved basalt columns create a unique landscape. Most of them have six corners, but an attentive traveler can find those with four, five, seven or eight corners. All together, they really resemble a giant road. It goes around the cliffs and goes into the sea, and the differences in the height of the columns from 6 to 12 meters evoke the feeling of a staircase carelessly hewn by giants.

When looking at the Path of the Giants, it is impossible to believe that its origin can be explained by the most ordinary natural processes, therefore, for romantics and lovers of myths, there is a legend about this place.

In ancient times inhabited these harsh lands giants. The gigantic warrior Finn Mac Kumalo had a difficult temper, and strong rivals did not frighten him. On the contrary, they evoked a desire to measure strength. The one-eyed giant who lived across the sea was just such a rival. The distance did not stop Finn and he decided to build a bridge, but not a simple one, but a stone one. With his sword, the indefatigable giant carved giant columns out of basalt and drove them into the ground.

Further folklore disagrees. Some say that Finn got tired and fell asleep, and the one-eyed warrior himself came to him. Others believe that when they saw a powerful opponent, fear seized the main character, and he fled. But in the final of both options, Finn's wife becomes the savior.

As usual in legends, she defeated the one-eyed warrior not by force, but by cunning and ingenuity. A smart woman swaddled her husband like a child, and met her rival with open arms and treats - cakes with pans baked in them. She herself sat down to lull her baby and feed him the same delicacy, only without filling. The uninvited guest, without suspecting anything, saw a giant baby that tirelessly chewed iron, asking for more, and realized that it was definitely not worth messing with the father of this child. The frightened opponent ran away headlong. Taking off his legs, he destroyed the bridge, and since then the stone columns have been submerged.

Origin

In fact, the origin of the Path of the Giants has a scientific explanation. This area gained fame only at the end of the 17th century, and tourists in in large numbers began to appear here more than a hundred years later. In addition to the unique landscape, visitors like this place for the fact that their movement here is completely unlimited. Despite the fact that the Path of the Giants is nature reserve There are no closed areas here.

Curious tourists can find similar formations in other parts of the world, but it is here that their most massive accumulation is located. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Path of Giants is of interest not only to amateurs, but also to scientists. For several centuries they tried to agree on a common opinion, putting forward different hypotheses. Some believed that the pillars were crystals that had been growing under the waters of ancient oceans for thousands of years. Others believed that the columns were nothing more than a petrified bamboo forest.

Most modern scientists have settled on a different point of view. According to them, millions of years ago, an eruption ancient volcano formed here a vast lava plain, the basis of which was basalt. Gradually hardening, it cracked, forming an amazing pattern. When the magma solidified, the cracks gradually deepened and subsequently formed regular hexagonal columns. This is how scientists explained the origin of the Giant's Path. But, who knows, maybe on an island in the middle of the cold sea, a frightened one-eyed giant is still sitting alone...

Attractions

The columns of the Path of the Giants form three platforms. The first of them is called the Great Path and originates from rocky mountains. This platform is a monumental staircase, the steps of which reach a height of six meters. Going down to the sea, the path becomes more gentle and looks like a road for giants. The second platform is the Middle and Small trails.

The columns from this group are located near the main path, but they no longer resemble a path, but separate mounds. Observing precautionary measures, they can be examined by moving from one pillar to another. The third site is the most mysterious and least visited. This desert island Staffa, which is located 130 km from the coast. Its name translates as "Island of Pillars". Between the columns, the island hides its main attraction - Fingal's Cave, the length of which is about 80 meters.

The giants laid the beginning of their path along the cliffs. Later, people appreciated their bizarre shape and gave them original names. There is also musical instruments- Harp and Organ, and stone accessories forgotten by the giants - Loom, Cannons and even the Giant's Coffin. forgot here unknown giant and your shoe. This is what one of the cobblestones looks like. Curious visitors figured out that the owner of this shoe was at least 16 meters tall.

Separate pillars of the Giants' Path do not just rise, but look from the sea like chimneys of a harsh northern castle. A curious case in the history of the country is connected with this. The “invincible armada” of the Spaniards, approaching the coast, decided to fire on the territory that posed a threat and attacked. Only the basalt columns suffered the loss, because there was no castle on the shore. The ship of the Spaniards crashed on the rocks, and the army suffered considerable losses in cold waters. The sunken treasures were raised from the bottom and are still kept in one of their museums in Ireland.

The path of the giants has several names, including the Path of the Giants and the Bridge of the Giants. Located in Northern Ireland volcanic formations are among the world heritage of nature, which is why a considerable number of tourists tend to look at unusual cliffs.

Description of Road of the Giants

An amazing wonder of nature from above resembles a sloping road that descends from the cliffs and goes into Atlantic Ocean. Its length on the coast reaches 275 meters, and about 150 meters more stretches under water. The size of each column is about six meters, although twelve-meter pillars are also found. If you take a photo from above the cliff, you can see the honeycombs closely adjacent to each other. Most of the pillars are hexagonal, but there are also those with four, seven or nine corners.

The pillars themselves are quite solid and dense. This is due to their composition, which is dominated by magnesium and basaltic iron with quartz content. It is because of this that they are not subject to decay under the influence of the winds and waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Conventionally, the natural structure can be divided into three sections. The first is called the Great Path. Here the columns have a cascade structure in the form of steps. To the bottom, they are aligned into a road up to 30 meters wide. Next are the Middle and Small paths, reminiscent of protruding burial mounds. Their tops can be walked on as they are flat in shape.

Another unusual area is Staffa Island. It is located 130 km from the coast, but even here you can see columns similar to those that go under water. Another notable place for tourists on the island is the Fingal Cave, the depth of which reaches 80 meters.

Hypotheses about the occurrence of a miracle of nature

In the course of studying the Road of the Giants, scientists put forward various hypotheses about where such columns came from. Among the popular versions are the following explanations:

pillars are crystals formed on seabed, once located in Northern Ireland;
the columns are petrified bamboo forest;
the surface was formed as a result of volcanic eruptions.

It is the third option that seems closest to the truth, since it is believed that the magma that has come to the surface with a long period of cooling begins to slowly crack, which makes the layer resemble honeycombs that go far deep into the earth. Due to the basalt base, the magma did not spread over the ground, but lay down in an even layer, which later became similar to columns.

Despite the fact that this hypothesis seems to scientists the most reliable, it is not possible to test it for truth, since hundreds of years must pass before a similar effect can be repeated in practice.

Legend of the Road of the Giants

Among the Irish, the story is retold of the giant Finn McCumal, who had to fight a terrible adversary from Scotland. To connect the island with Great Britain, the resourceful giant began to build a bridge and was so tired that he lay down to rest. His wife, hearing that the enemy was approaching, swaddled her husband and began to bake cakes.

When the Scot asked if Finn was sleeping on the shore, his wife said that it was just their baby, and her husband would soon arrive for the decisive duel. The resourceful girl treated the guest to pancakes, but she first baked cast-iron pans in them and left only one for Finn without an unusual addition. The Scot could not bite a single cake and was extremely surprised that the "baby" ate it without difficulty.

Thinking how strong the father of this child must be, the Scot hastened to escape from the island, destroying the bridge he had built behind him. An amazing legend likes not only local residents, but also fuels interest in the Giant's Road among tourists from different corners peace. They are happy to walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the landscapes of Ireland.

Appeared about sixty million years ago. Forty thousand basalt columns were created by nature itself, thanks to the primordial elements that pushed this miracle out of the bowels of the Earth. According to Irish legend, this pavement was built by the giant Finn McCumal with his own hands. This giant, who was going crazy with strong love for the daughter of another giant, who lived across the sea, on the island of Staffa in Scotland, drove huge pieces of columns into the strait so that he could get to his beloved.

The giant Finn, having stolen his beloved, took her in his arms to his house, located in Antrim. But the beautiful giantess was also liked by another giant, Goll, who chased his beloved along the paved road, not wanting to give the giantess to Finn. But when Goll showed up, the quick-witted couple deceived him by passing off the giant Finn as their common newborn child. Then the giant Goll, frightened by the size of the giant Finn himself, rushed back to Scotland in horror, destroying the built road. According to legend, due to a quarrel among the giants, we got only the remnants of the former path.

Modern geologists have a completely different version of the appearance of a miracle road. During the separation tectonic plates European and North American territory, more than sixty million years ago, Northern part Europe has become a field of heightened volcanic activity.

In many places along the fault line that stretched from the western part of Scotland to northeastern Ireland, thanks to underground forces breaking out to the surface and pushing huge layers of earth apart, gigantic cracks appeared. The fiery magma rushing through these cracks formed boiling lava reservoirs, which, having seeped through sedimentary rocks and cooled, became stone.

The cooling process was long time. Lava during this period took the form of overlapping stone layers and turned into regular shaped basalt vertical columns. As a result of the cooling, which lasted two million years, a unique basaltic territory was formed, occupying almost the entire coast of Antrim.

The area from Antrim to the sea is five kilometers coastline, with located basalt vertical columns in the amount of forty thousand pieces. All columns have a different number of catches, but the main part is hexagonal columns. Height of the high pillar is twelve meters, and the thickness of the widest column is 25 meters.

Thanks to the legend of the giants, the path of the giants has bizarre column names:

Chimney pipes

Giant's tool

Giant's Flute

shepherd stairs

Giant boot

After a magma eruption, the northeast of Ireland turned into a region with a blessed subtropical climate, where over appearance natural landscape wind and water were already at work. This rugged coastline is home to numerous seabirds nesting in the rocks. Rocky pigeons, cormorants, petrels, puffins, guillemots and fulmars inhabit the rock ledges in huge colonies.

Plants rare for the area, including endemic orchids, can be seen between the columns. reserved Road of the Giants became popular in the eighteenth century, when it was noticed by the Bishop of Derry. In the nineteenth century, it was already full of tourists.

Today, the Giant's Road is not only a geological, but also a biological unique, which received the status of a natural national reserve and monument in 1987. world heritage. Travelers are allowed to walk around the entire reserve, admiring the wonderful sea panoramas from the coastal peaks.

Unique natural monument, consisting of more than 40 thousand basalt and andesite columns, formed as a result of ancient volcanic activity. Closely pressed together, the hexagonal columns form a kind of paved road that descends from the hill on the Causeway Coast and disappears into the sea.

It is located natural wonder in Northern Ireland. Most of the pillars are from 6 to 12 meters high and are so closely adjacent to each other that even the blade of a knife cannot be inserted into the crack between them. Volcanic basalt deposits form not only a road, but also picturesque cliffs throughout the Causeway Coast. Most of these cliffs have their own names. So, here is the rock Harp, the Coffin of the Giant and even the Loom of the Giant.

Some apart standing poles from a distance, from the sea, one can mistake for the chimneys of some gigantic castle. This is exactly what one of the ships of the "Invincible Armada" imagined, lost in these waters after its defeat. The unfortunate Spaniards bombarded the deserted coast for a long time, believing that they were besieging a well-fortified fort.

The origin of the Road of the Giants and its name is explained by the local ancient legend. It says that in ancient times, the hero of the Irish epic, the giant Finn McKumal, decided to fight another terrible one-eyed giant Goll, who lived on the opposite side of the Irish Sea, that is, in Scotland. In order not to swim across the sea, Finn decided to build big bridge from basalt rocks. When the work was completed, the exhausted Mak Kumal returned home and fell asleep right on the shore.
While he was sleeping, Goll decided to preempt the blow and himself crossed the bridge built over the sea. Finn's wife, seeing the one-eyed man, decided to defeat the enemy not by force, but by cunning. She told Goll that her husband was not at home, and their baby son was sleeping on the shore. To frighten the uninvited guest even more, the woman invited him to taste the pies, each of which was baked with an iron frying pan. While Goll, breaking his teeth, tried to bite off a piece of treat, the woman offered exactly the same to her "baby", but since he was without iron filling, Finn, without waking up, easily chewed it.
Glancing once more at the “baby”, chewing iron pies without any problems, and imagining how tall and strong his father must have been, Goll was horrified and preferred to get out without a fight. And so that the huge Finn suddenly decided not to pursue him, the one-eyed one destroyed the bridge behind him.

Today, the area around Giant's Road is considered National Reserve, and the road itself is included in the list of objects of the World cultural heritage. Despite such a solid status, access to this natural structure is open to everyone. Tourists and extreme sports enthusiasts are allowed to wander along the trail for as long as they like or climb any rock they like. Getting here is also not so difficult, the nearest town of Bushmills is only three kilometers away and from there a small tourist train runs to the Giant's Road.

The Giant's Trail is located on the northern coast of Ireland, 100 km northwest of Belfast, about 3 km north of Bushmills and is famous for its unique landscape.

Lots of people around stone pillars forms a semblance of a road that seems to be paved with unusual paving stones. There are many variations of the legend about the origin of the Giant's Path, and we will tell you one of them.

A long time ago, when giants lived on Earth, the giant Fin McCool, who lives in these parts, wanted to measure his strength with the giant Benandonner and challenged him to battle. The vain Benandonner accepted the challenge, wanting to teach the impudent Fin a lesson and got ready to go.

The rivals were separated by the sea, and in order to be in the possessions of Fin, Benandonner began to drive huge pillars into the seabed, creating a semblance of a bridge. He spent a lot of time and effort, but still got to the other side and decided to take a nap before the upcoming fight.

Finn's wife McCool was walking along the waterfront when she suddenly noticed the sleeping Benandonner. Assessing that her husband's rival is bigger and stronger, she decided to go for a trick and swaddled her giant husband like a baby.

When Benandonner came to their house and saw such a “child”, he was seriously frightened: after all, if this is just a child, then what a powerful father he has ?! And Benandonner had no choice but to flee back to his lands, destroying the bridge of columns along the way.

The origin of the Path of the Giants was able to explain not only local legends, but also scientists. According to them, the abnormally symmetrical pillars formed during a volcanic eruption more than 50 million years ago. As a result of chemical reactions, pressure and layering, the lava turned into regular hexagons, which we can contemplate at the present time.

Another attraction of the Giants' Trail is the so-called "chimneys". Under the influence of erosion and weathering, some pillars began to rise above the rest and from the side resemble chimneys ancient castle. The Spanish warship "Girona", escaping after the defeat of the "Invincible Armada" in 1588, fired several volleys of cannons at the cliff, as the Spaniards mistook it for an enemy castle.

This beautiful place inspired creative people of the 19th century: artists, writers and even musicians. The naturalist Joseph Banks, who visited the Giant's Trail more than once, once said: “Compared to this, what are the cathedrals and palaces built by man? Just toy houses."