Giant's Causeway Tours and Antrim Coast Holidays
The Giant's Causeway lies at the foot of the cliffs on the north Antrim coast, an apron of basalt columns stepping down into the Atlantic. It has been Northern Ireland's only UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, and it is a good deal stranger in person than the photographs suggest.
We travel here from a Belfast base, which is the sensible way to do it. The city gives you the Titanic story, the murals and the Victorian centre, and the Causeway Coast is little more than an hour's drive north. Our escorted holiday pairs the two, with a local guide and all excursions included.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Giants Causeway Tours
More than some people expect. It is roughly a kilometre from the clifftop visitor centre down to the stones, on a surfaced road with a steady gradient, and the return climb is the harder half. A shuttle minibus covers the same route. The Causeway itself is uneven rock and can be slippery. Please ask us about the arrangements on a particular departure if walking distance is a concern.
About sixty miles, which is an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half by coach on the direct inland route. Taken the scenic way, along the Antrim coast road through Glenarm and Carnlough, it is a longer and considerably more interesting drive. Which route a given departure uses depends on the day's itinerary and the weather, so do ask us.
Four nights at the Hampton by Hilton Belfast, return flights and transfers in the UK and at the destination, breakfast daily, three evening meals at the hotel and one at a traditional Irish bar or restaurant. Coach transport, a local guide and all the excursions listed are included: Titanic Belfast, the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Distillery, a Belfast city tour and the Siege Museum. Anything not listed, ask us.
Early morning and late afternoon, and any month other than July and August. Coach parties and cruise passengers tend to arrive between eleven and three, so the stones are at their emptiest either side of that. Weekdays in May, June and September are the sweet spot: reasonable daylight, flowers on the clifftops and room to stand still. Timings on our tours are set by the itinerary, so do ask us.
How the basalt columns formed
The Causeway is the exposed edge of a lava flow that spread across this corner of Antrim around sixty million years ago. As the molten basalt cooled it contracted and cracked, and because it cooled evenly the cracks travelled downwards in a regular pattern, leaving something like forty thousand columns packed together like a paved floor. Most have six sides, though four, five, seven and eight all occur. In the section called the Organ, the columns stand around twelve metres tall against the cliff.
The older explanation is better company. Finn McCool built a road across the sea to settle matters with the Scottish giant Benandonner, then, seeing the size of his rival, was disguised as a baby by his wife. Benandonner took one look at the infant, imagined the father, and tore up the road behind him as he fled. The same lava flow surfaces again on Staffa in the Hebrides, which does the legend no harm at all.
Dunluce, Bushmills and the Causeway Coast
The stones are the reason people come, but the twenty miles either side of them are the reason to stay a while. Dunluce Castle stands on a stack of rock west of the Causeway, reached by a bridge, and part of its kitchen is said to have dropped into the sea in 1639. Bushmills, a couple of miles inland, has held a licence to distil since 1608.
Further east the coast breaks into headlands and small harbours: Ballintoy, the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede that salmon fishermen once slung across to a fishing rock, and the white limestone cliffs at Whiterocks near Portrush. Inland, the beech avenue known as the Dark Hedges was planted in the eighteenth century to impress visitors arriving at Gracehill House, and still does. On a clear day the Scottish coast is plainly visible, some sixteen miles off.
What the walk down involves
The National Trust visitor centre sits on the clifftop, its grass roof pitched to match the slope, and the stones are about a kilometre below it. The walk down is on a tarmac road, easy enough going out and noticeably steeper coming back; a shuttle minibus runs the same route for those who would rather not do it on foot. The Shepherd's Steps climb from the shore to the cliff path for anyone wanting the higher view.
On the Causeway itself the surface is uneven and genuinely slippery after rain or spray, so proper shoes matter more than anything else you bring. The wind comes straight off the Atlantic and is rarely absent. Waterproofs earn their keep here in any month of the year.
If you have any concerns about the walking on this excursion, do ask us before you book.
