Celtic Shores · Farstep pack

Giant's Causeway in 3D

County Antrim · the Grand Causeway

County Antrim coast, Northern Ireland

The Giant's Causeway is about 40,000 basalt columns, mostly six-sided, formed when lava cooled slowly some 60 million years ago and cracked the way drying mud cracks. Walking from stone to stone you step on the cooling fronts of the lava. In the story, Finn McCool built it to cross to Scotland and fight a rival giant.

Where: County Antrim coast, Northern Ireland
Columns: About 40,000, mostly six-sided
Age: About 60 million years
Tallest: About 12 m
UNESCO World Heritage: 1986

Official site

Walk Giant's Causeway in 3D

A real-time 3D model, built from open elevation data and published measurements. Loads 2.7 MB when you start.

Giant's Causeway

Walk it yourself. Works on this phone.

Part of the Celtic Shores pack: a one-time unlock in this browser.

Terrain from open elevation data · a 3D reconstruction, not a photograph · tags as in the app

What you'll find in the walk

Gold markers in the scene open these cards.

Forty thousand columns
Known
Basalt lava cooled slowly here about 60 million years ago and cracked into mostly six-sided columns, the way drying mud cracks. The tallest stand about 12 m.
The giant
Folklore
In the story, Finn McCool built the causeway to cross to Scotland and fight a rival giant. The same basalt does surface again at Staffa, 130 km across the water.
The steps
Known
Each column is a stack of segments with gently curved joints. Walking from stone to stone, you are stepping on the cooling fronts of the lava.