I just learned about Fingal’s Cave — a seventy-two feet tall, two-hundred-seventy feet deep sea cave whose interor walls are made up of hexagonal columns of basalt. A large ancient laval flow cooled very slowly and cracked into this hexagonal pattern as it did. This cave was later exposed through erosion.
The cave was a well-known wonder of the ancient Irish and Scottish celtic people and was an important site in the legends. Known to the celts as Uamh-Binn or “The Cave of Melody,” one Irish legend in particular explained the existence of the cave as well as that of the similar Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. As both are made of the same neat basalt columns, the legend holds that they were the end pieces of a bridge built by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (a.k.a. Finn McCool) to Scotland where he was to fight Benandonner, his gigantic Scottish rival.
Visit the Atlas Obscura or Wikipedia to read more about this amazing formation.
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