Yup, it’s time for another trip to see the remains of giant Finn McCool’s Causeway between the North Antrim coast and the Scottish island of Staffa. Of course, I could wax nostaligic about my first time here, when it was still really wild and not part of Theme Park UK and how now there’s yet another visitor centre…

…but, actually, this building is interesting….

Architects Heneghan-Peng have incorporated the concept of basalt columns with A-lines sympathetic to the coastline itself…

  Another example of how, in my opinion, new blends successfully with old.

We don’t take the tourist bus down to the Causeway itself – it’s only a short walk – but when we arrive down there, there are plenty of tourists crawling like ants over these amazing columns…

In places the mostly hexagonal blocks of solidified lava have been rubbed smooth and shiny as polished stone…

It’s easy to see why this place has been named one of the wonders of the world. And, no doubt about it, this coastline is beautiful… We also fit in a walk between Portrush and Portstewart, following the Causeway Coast Way, coinciding with the long distance path the Ulster Way.

Even though much of this path runs quite close to the coastal road, there is still a great deal of peace and natural beauty…

…and, as with many places in Ireland, a little bit of folklore chucked in for good measure…

This is supposed to be the grave of an unknown sailor to which there seems dedicated the poem…

He sleeps in the green spot that fronts the sea/filled with the murmur of the chastened wave/that lifts the smooth dark wrack so quietly/the sun-warmed bed his grave…

Seamus Heaney it ain’t, in my opinion, but hey, it’s the sentiment that counts, and you certainly get that in Ireland!