2024-06-02 – Belfast, Northern Ireland – Day 031

Sunday June 02, 2024 – Belfast, Northern Ireland

We docked Starboard to Dock at the commercial / shipbuilding port, (although it did have cruise terminal facilites) having been escorted in by fireboats doing their water cannon tricks and a band was on the shore playing to greet us. A nice way to start the day and a good weather day, warm with basically no rain although at times there was a cooling type of spritzing rain. Patsy and David took off to their visit of the Titanic Museum and visit around Belfast. We boarded Coach 10 for our trip across the top of the island of Ireland to the Atlantic side of Northern Ireland to see “The Giant Causeway” and viewpoints of the Cliffs of the Western Shores. The guide Sue, a retired teacher certainly had kissed the Blarney Stone as she talked for four hours giving us a lot of fascinating information, stories and legends. She was really terrific as was the driver Kiren. As we were all on the coach 1/2 hour early we left and got an extra tour around Belfast. Northern Ireland has 6 counties and is 107 miles east to west at its widest and 97 north to south covering about 1/5th of the Land Mass of the Island and has a population of 1.9 Million. The city of Belfast is built on mud and all the port area lies on reclaimed land. Shipbuilding has been a major industry with Harlem and Wolfe being one of the largest builders in the world in its heyday having built 1,700 ships. It nearly disappeared completely but was bought for 7 Million pounds and is now a major repair facility with one of the largest dry docks in the world. Another industry of the past was linen. It is said that the amount of linen thread produced here could go 28,000 times around the world!

Some 7,000 years ago there was a land bridge to Scotland and from there to the rest of Europe, so some of the early settlers came from various European countries and settled here as going any further west was not an option. 3,000 years ago the Celtics and Druids came to the island and 1500 years ago St. Patrick started the conversion to Christianity. The Vikings came in the 7th – 9th centuries to plunder the churches. Belfast was founded 420 years ago and by 1100 the island was divided into four ruling families. Ulster, a name often associated with Northern Ireland, actually consists of 9 counties of which 6 are Protestant and 3 are Catholic.The Island was part of the UK until 1921 when the South gained its independence and the North remained with England.

25,000 family farms each with an average size of 100 acres are mainly used to farm 375,000 Dairy Cattle and 275,000 Beef (eating) Cattle as well as 2 million Sheep, of which the males are mostly slaughtered for food and the females kept for reproduction and to keep the heard going. The wool is used for sweaters, but mainly for insulation and other such industrial causes. At the present time nearly half the electricity is generated by renewables and indeed we saw 5 giant arms on the dock (at 1 million pounds STG per propeller) for wind farms. The plan is to move to 100% renewables by 2035.

Our first stop was at a car park viewpoint near Port Rush overlooking the beaches and observing the steep cliffs that make up a lot of this area. Next – The Giant Causeway and its Basalt Stones, now managed by the National Trust. This type of structure exists all over the world, but mostly it is under ground or under water and this is one of the few places where it can be seen. Another is Huasca de Ocampo in Mexico which has the “Prismas”, on a smaller but no less impressive, scale. It is located in County Antrim on the north west coast of Northern Ireland near the town of Bushmill (known for the Whiskey that is distilled there). These Basalt (very hard black rock) Columns that make the causeway were the result of volcanic fissure eruption, although in true Irish fashion, a legend of two feuding giants is the reason given. More on this story later. Millions of years ago the area was a plateau that was covered in hot volcanic lava. As the lava cooled, it cracked causing hexagonal or multi sided columns. Imagine an area of mud that dries out over time, the resulting fissures occur causing similar hexagonal shapes. As water got into these fissures and over ice ages, these formed columns and the columns were then fractured causing what appears to be a pile of biscuits (cookies) that have an upper convex part and a lower concave part thus creating a Ball and Socket type joint that permits the columns to remain upright. Some are 20 feet high, while others get lowered and lower until they disappear into the sea. One can walk over the top of them, down to the sea, although they are very slippery when wet, it is an amazing experience. It was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1986.

Now to the legend – the Irish Giant – Finn McCool, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish Benandonner. The challenge was accepted and Finn constructed a causeway of these giant stepping stones to Scotland to meet with his foe. Once he saw how big he was, he returned to his wife in Ireland and said, no way I am fighting him! The Scot, came looking for him walking across the Basalt Causeway and the wife played a trick, dressing up Finn as a baby and telling the Scot, sorry he isn’t here now, but come in and see my baby. The Scot, seeing the size of the baby decided that the father must be a giant among giants so fled back to Scotland, dismantling the causeway behind him, so he couldn’t follow him. In Scotland at Fingal’s Cave on the Isle of Staffa there are identical basalt columns formed by the same lava flow, which could be the reason for the legend. Together with that some of the rock formations are part of this legend. In one bay there is an islet that looks like a Camel. According to the legend, the Camel had to be used to transport the giant as other pack animals were too small, thus the existence of the Camel like grouping of Basalt Columns. Other parts include an organ, a giant boot and other features. A very nice visitor center, a pub and a hotel are all in the area so one can enjoy a day or more exploring this amazing phenomena.

We did one more stop to see the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the island home to 146 people, before returning to Belfast and the ship. We were in time for tea, then dinner and the show was the excellent Olivier Nominee and Broadway star (wicked, Sunset Boulevard, The Last Ship, Come From Away etc) Rachael Tucker who was brilliant. Tomorrow is the excitement of the naming ceremony of the Queen Anne.