Day 6 - The Dark Hedges and the Giant's Causeway
The Dark Hedges
Today, we wanted to see a few of the natural sites while we were in Northern Ireland. First on the list was "The Dark Hedges". This is a road surrounded by spindly beech trees that form a beautiful and almost eerie tunnel. Over 150 trees were planted originally to create an imposing entrance to the "Gracehill House". In 2023, a survey was conducted and 86 of the trees remained and it was estimated that they were between 300-350 years old, far longer than the typical age range of the Beech tree. To further protect the trees, which root close to the ground, traffic on the road has now been banned.
The hedges gained popularity after being used in the Game of Thrones TV Shows as the "Kings Road".
According to local legend, the hedges are inhabited by a ghost, nicknamed the Grey Lady, who flits between the branches. On Halloween, she is joined by more spirits from nearby graves.
Giant's Causeway
About 20 minutes from the Dark Hedges was our next stop, the Giant's Causeway. The Giant's Causeway is an area of hexagonal basalt columns formed by volcanic eruptions. We've seen similar basalt columns in Iceland, so it was exciting to get to see them here as well.
The name comes from the legend where the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted and built the causeway to travel across the North Channel. However, Fionn realizes his opponent is much larger so he returns and hides. His wife helps him hide by disguising him as a baby. Benandonner sees the size of the "baby" and thinks that its father must be a giant among giants and flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway along the way. There's an identical set of basalt columns in Scotland.
The weather had been fickle all day (rain, sleet, snow, hail, sunshine, sometimes all within minutes of each other), but the main constant was the wind. In particular here, the wind was strong and chilly. We would've liked to spend some more time exploring the columns and getting more shots, but we were not well prepared for the wind and the 15-20 minute hike down had left us freezing. We opted to pay for the bus back up the hill to get out of the cold and back to our car, just as more rain and sleet started back up.
CS Lewis Square
One last thing we had to check out before leaving Belfast was the C. S. Lewis Square park. Lewis was born in Belfast and they have dedicated a small park to him complete with statues from his books including Aslan, the White Witch, and Mr. Tumnus.
