The Giants Causeway

The Giants Causeway is a National Trust owned, natural rock formation on the coast of Northern Ireland. It was caused by lava cracking as it dried, forming what looks like a series of hexagonal pillars of rock. 

The name comes from the legend of two giants, one from Scotland and one from Ireland. The Scottish giant crossed the Irish sea on a causeway to fight and kill the Irish giant. However the Irish giant’s wife was clever and she dressed her husband up as a baby and put him in a giant pram. When the Scottish giant got to Ireland, he saw the giant baby and thought to himself that if that was the size of the baby then the father must be massive. The Scottish giant didn’t wait around to find out and ran back to Scotland, destroying the causeway behind him as he went. All that remained was the path going into the sea in Ireland and the path coming out of the sea in Scotland. 

There are two ways to visit the Giants Causeway. You can either pay to park in the National Trust car park and go inside the visitor center before walking down the path to the shore, or you can park in a car park further up the road for £5 and walk straight down to the coast. 

There is normally a bus down from the visitor center but due to covid this wasnt running when we visited so we opted to miss the visitor center and walk down the hill. It was about a 20 minute walk. We had a wheelchair with us and whilst it was possible and mostly smooth enough, it was very steep in places and very difficult to push the chair back up the hill! The views were stunning though and definitely worth the effort.

I don’t know why but I was expecting the Giants Causeway to be much bigger than it was so I was a little surprised by how small it felt when we got there. The stones were impressive though and super fun to climb around whilst watching the waves crash into the shore. 

It was definitely worth seeing and I’m glad we visited just to say we have been there.

Taking an autistic child to The Giants Causeway?

This is a natural rock formation on the coast. There are drops, the sea and other dangers. Very close supervision is needed and you will know your child best and be able to judge if it is worth visiting.

There is a 20 minute walk downhill from the car park to the Giants Causeway and therefore a fairly steep walk back to the top afterwards.

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