Attraction in County Londonderry

The Giant's Causeway on the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland is the most visited tourist attraction in Ireland and one of the most spectacular geological formations in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where approximately forty thousand interlocking basalt columns formed by the slow cooling of volcanic lava approximately sixty million years ago create a pavement of extraordinary geometric regularity extending from the base of the sea cliffs into the Atlantic Ocean. The columns are predominantly hexagonal in cross-section, ranging from a few centimetres to over forty centimetres across, and their regular, almost architectural form seems more like deliberate construction than geological process. The volcanic episode that created the Causeway was part of the great North Atlantic rifting event of the Eocene period, when enormous quantities of basalt lava erupted across what is now northeastern Ireland and western Scotland, creating formations that appear at the Giant's Causeway, on the island of Staffa in Scotland and at several other locations along what was once a continuous volcanic landscape. As the thick lava flows cooled slowly from the top and bottom simultaneously, contraction fractures propagated inward through the cooling rock, intersecting in the polygonal pattern that reflects the most efficient packing of cracks in a homogeneous medium. The geometry is the same reason soap bubbles pack in hexagonal arrangements. The legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, the Irish giant who built the Causeway to reach his Scottish rival Benandonner, is one of Ireland's most famous myths and provides an entirely satisfying alternative explanation for a formation that does appear almost impossibly constructed. The story connects the Causeway to the identical formation at Fingal's Cave on Staffa, a geological relationship that the legend understood intuitively without recourse to volcanology. The National Trust visitor centre provides excellent interpretation and the clifftop coastal path gives access to spectacular views of the Causeway from above.

The Old Bushmills Distillery in the village of Bushmills in County Antrim is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world, a claim supported by a grant of distilling rights issued in 1608 by King James I that makes the Bushmills operation the earliest formally documented whiskey distillery in recorded history. The distillery produces a range of single malt and blended Irish whiskies that are sold internationally, and the visitor experience it offers is one of the finest distillery tours in Ireland, combining the historic credentials of the site with a thorough and accessible explanation of the whiskey-making process. The distillery stands on the bank of the St Columb's Rill, a small stream whose waters contribute to the character of Bushmills whiskey, in the centre of the village that takes its name from the mill on the bush river nearby. The current buildings date primarily from the nineteenth century, the original distillery having been destroyed by fire and rebuilt on several occasions, but the overall impression of a working Victorian distillery with its brick warehouses, malting floors and copper pot stills has been carefully maintained. The distinctive smell of fermenting mash and the distinctive sweetness of maturing spirit in the bonded warehouses are among the sensory experiences that make distillery visits so compelling. The tour covers the full whiskey-making process from malting the barley through to the triple distillation in copper pot stills that gives Irish whiskey its characteristic smoothness, the maturation in bourbon and sherry casks and the blending that produces the finished product. The tasting at the end of the tour provides an opportunity to compare different expressions of the Bushmills range in the appropriate context. The distillery's location near the Giant's Causeway, one of Ireland's most visited natural sites, makes it a natural stopping point on a Causeway Coast itinerary, and the village of Bushmills itself has several good restaurants and the Bushmills Inn hotel.