The Giant's Causeway

is a mass of basalt columns packed tightly together extending into the Irish Sea off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff top and disappear under the sea. Altogether there are 40,000 of these stone columns, mostly hexagonal, but some with four, five, seven and eight sides, The tallest are about 40 feet high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 feet thick in places. The Giant's Causeway, one of Northern Ireland's primary tourist attractions, is a geological freak, probably caused by volcanic eruptions and cooling lava.
    The more imaginative explanation of this phenomenon is that it was the work of Finn McCool. As already outlined Finn was capable of incredible feats of strength. He was said to inhabit a draughty County Antrim headland: "He lived most happy and content, obeyed no law and paid no rent." When he fell in love with a lady giant on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides, he built this wide commodious highway to bring her across to Ulster. This "highway" became the Giant's Causeway, remnants of which remain on both the Irish and Scottish coasts. Another story describing Finn's role in the origin of the Causeway goes like this: Finn's great rival the Scottish giant, Benandonner, decided to challenge the Irish giant to a dual to the death. Finn welcomed the opportunity to destroy his enemy and built a causeway of huge stones across the water so that the Scottish giant could travel on dry land and thus find no excuse to avoid the confrontation. However, as the story goes, Finn's wife, Oonagh, noticed when Benandonner was coming across the causeway that he was much larger than her husband. Oonagh had to work a trick. She told Finn to take his clothes off and disguised him as an infant complete with large nightgown and bonnet. When Benandonner eventually arrived on the coast of Antrim to challenge Finn McCool, he met with Oonagh who invited the Scottish giant in for a cup of tea. She pleaded with him to keep quiet or he would wake Finn's child. Looking at the massive "baby" lying in the cradle, Benandonner took fright, exclaiming that if this was the child, then he had no wish to meet the father. So, he made a hasty retreat back to Scotland, ripping up the Causeway in fear of the awful Finn McCool pursuing him home. That is why only remnants of the Causeway remain in County Antrim and on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland today.