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As many of you are aware I was on my travels last week and one of the places I visited was the Antrim Coast in the North of Ireland. A place I have always wanted to visit but never got around to it until now. It is such a different environment up there with it’s rugged cliffs exposed to the North Atlantic sea, unlike the sheltered coastline here on the east.
One of the most famous sites there is of course the Giant’s Causeway or “Clochán an Aifir” in Irish. It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant’s Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. The 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 (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places (source wiki).
This place is also steeped in our own folklore and one legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells 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. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner’s great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the ‘infant’, he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn (source wiki).
As you can probably see by the sky the weather conditions were very stormy, in fact I spent most of my time here with my gear safely in it’s bag while I took shelter from the rain under a rock.
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
Exposure: 25 secs
Aperture: f/16
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO Speed: 50
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Beautiful image and location John.
Just yesterday I “found” images from this location while looking for locations to go to next spring. Can’t remember though anymore who’s site I was on, but this place surely appears to be very inspiring.