Giant's Causeway United Kingdom

Legendary

Hexagonal rock formation shaped by volcanic activity.

Photo by Lindy Buckley

There's an identical set of stone columns across the sea in Scotland. Same rock, same shape, same age, sitting in a cave on a small Scottish island.

That's not a coincidence, and it isn't magic either. Both were made by the same volcanic eruption, back when Ireland and Scotland were one landmass.

But the legend is better. Irish stories say a giant named Finn McCool built a path across the sea to fight a Scottish giant called Benandonner.

When Finn saw how enormous Benandonner really was, he panicked and ran home. His wife wrapped him in blankets and passed him off as a baby.

Benandonner took one look at the "baby," decided the father must be gigantic, and fled back to Scotland. He tore up the path behind him as he ran, which is why only the two ends remain.

The real story starts about 60 million years ago. The land here was pulling apart as the North Atlantic Ocean began to open up.

Cracks opened in the ground and hot lava poured out across the landscape. When lava cools slowly and evenly, it shrinks and splits.

Those splits form remarkably neat shapes. Here they cracked into roughly 40,000 columns, most of them six-sided, packed tightly against each other like a honeycomb.

Some columns are short stumps you can sit on. Others rise up to 12 meters high against the cliffs.

Visitors have been coming for more than 300 years. The site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and is looked after by the National Trust.

Walk out onto the stones themselves and count the sides of the columns you're standing on. Look for the Giant's Boot, a rock shaped like a huge shoe left on the shore. Follow the clifftop path for views over the whole Causeway Coast, past sea stacks and the ruins of Dunluce Castle.