Giant’s Causeway
It was likely molten lava, cooled into some 40,000 hexagonals of dark stone steps, a few million years ago, which gave us our famous basalt columns. But we prefer the other version of events: the one about a Celtic warrior who got too big for his boots and went a-knockin’ on the wrong giant’s island. Legend goes that Finn MacCool built the basalt highway to Scotland to challenge rival giant, Benandonner, to a fight. But Finn’s wide-eyed glimpse of the enormous Scot sent him scurrying back to Ireland and to his quick-witted wife, Oonagh. As Benandonner thundered down the highway after him, Oonagh disguised the quavering Finn as an infant. “Don’t wake the baby” she scolded the giant Scot as he burst in the door. “If that’s the kid, I don’t want to meet the father”, thinks Benandonner, turning tail for Scotland and ripping up the basalt paving stones behind him. We reckon Finn’s oversized luck makes a more lively explanation than a geography lesson, but that’s just us.
