GIANTS CAUSEWAY HEADLANDS

 1989 - Photograph by kind permission of the School of Electrical Eng. - Queens University Belfast 

     Once the download is complete you can run your mouse over the titles at the right of the photograph to identify the locations. I have tried to strike a balance between download time and image quality - therefore it should take no more than 30 seconds on a 56k modem.  The photo taken 1989 shows the headlands of the Giants Causeway from Benanouran Head in the foreground to Runkerry Point, the roof of Runkerry House can be seen in the distance just to the left of Runkerry Point.  The cliff top walk is still open and can be negotiated from the Causeway Visitor Centre above Portnaboe around as far as Portbraddon, if your lucky and have neap tide then it is possible to walk onto Whitepark Bay beach from Portbraddon. The visible lower mid cliff path is closed from Port Reostan  due to slope failures (rockfalls) which have destroyed the path at several locations.  In the photograph  you can see a red layers of soil (Laterite) exposed on the headlands either side of Port na Spaniagh, this extends on round into Port Reostan -it is  this layer, sandwiched between two harder basaltic layers which is  prone to weathering and in turn leads to slope failure. It is very unlikely that the old path will ever be re-opened.     Portcoon (Narrow harbour) is famous for its sea cave which extends in some two hundred yards and is accessible from the landward side - with tales of smuggling and ghostly pipers it was a popular spot for Victorian visitors  who would hire local boatmen to take them round from Brenther boat slip in Portnaboe  or Black Rock boat slip below Runkerry House.  In Portnaboe (Port of the cow) you will find  remains of low stone walls.  Several theories exist as to their purpose and perhaps three were correct are correct - one theory is that they were built to pen sheep or cattle - another that they were used to dry seaweed harvested from the shore, the third and  most intriguing, is that they were built by the Vikings for wintering at the causeway. It is known that  Vikings used their boats when wintering over - they would build a low stone wall the shape of the hull, the boat would then be turned upside down and secured, providing an excellent waterproof shelter. The Vikings are well documented in the history of Ulster,  they first came here in small 'hit and run' raiding parties, then later with fleets and eventually they made land bases in attempts to conquer the country.     In Portnaboe there are also  two intrusive volcanic dykes running out to sea, one of them is aptly named the 'Camel's Back'. The foreshore around the causeway has claimed many ships, in 1890 the  schooner 'William & Mary' foundered on rocks between Portnaboe and Portcoon, on route from Maryport, Cumbria  to Letterkenny, Donegal.  Port Ganny sweeps round from the Great Stookan to the Causeway itself,  if you had visited here forty years or so ago, you would have encountered many local characters with their wares  set out before them on the pathway leading to the Stones, selling everything from local soapstone carvings ( metamorphic rock with a soapy feel and the characteristic mineral of Talc), refreshments, to a guided tour of the Causeway Stones with a bit of blarney - an older version of what you still see today at the Cliffs of Moher. Tales tell of a ban on a certain local spirit being sold in public, to get round this law, the old ladies of the causeway would sell you the water and give you the spirit for free.  Looking back to the Great Stookan, there is a rock whose silhouette, especially as twilight falls, clearly resembles one of these old ladies walking up the steep incline  -  known locally 'Granny's Rock'. The causeway itself is a fascinating array of stones and amongst them you will find many interesting places including 'Wishing Chair' which as been sat upon by many, many famous people too numerous to list.  The causeway stones also featured on the cover of the Led Zeppelin album  'Houses of the Holy'.     Port Noffer is entered through the 'Giants Gate', a narrow pathway between tall vertical basalt columns and the towering Aird Snout which is lined with exposed tilted columns. On the foreshore is the distinct shape of  the 'Giants Boot', a huge  basalt rock which is weathered brown and in the shape of a boot.  Port Noffer is also another site of shipwrecks -  the 'Spokesman on route from Liverpool to Derry' laden with coal foundered here in 1847, accounts reported that no-one was found with the grounded wreck and that the log book had no records for several days before she was lost.  Other ships that have foundered in this area  include 'Abraham & Ann' 1824, and the 'Diligence' in 1839. Looking across to the far side of Port Noffer and accessible by the lower cliff path is the impressive 'Giants Organ' - tall hexagonal basalt columns set into the steep grassy slope -  the Shepherd's path connects from here to the upper cliff walk. You cannot follow the lower cliff path into Port Reostan but you can still view the wonderful Amphitheatre from the corner, a sheer wall of tall vertical columns line the cliff face.    Lacada Point is where the Spanish Galleass the 'Girona' sank in 1588 with the loss of over 1000 Spanish sailors and soldiers from the ill fated Armada. The bodies were  washed into Port na Spaniagh and written accounts of Port na Spaniagh  tell of a pile of white bones that once existed in the bay just above the shoreline which  were known locally as 'The Spaniard's Bones'.

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