Key Information
Giant’s Causeway
| Type | Area of Basalt Columns |
| Origin | The Thuluan Plateau – Volcanic Plateau |
| Number of Columns | Around 40,000 |
Learning Point
- The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland is an epic coastal landscape made of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that look like a massive, geometric staircase climbing out of the sea. While ancient myth says the Irish giant Finn MacCool built it as a pathway to challenge a rival in Scotland, geology proves it was actually created 60 million years ago by cooling volcanic lava. As the molten rock cooled and shrank, it cracked into mostly six-sided columns, forming a perfect natural puzzle that is now a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Project
- Draw the Giant’s Causeway.
Location
| Location | County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
Fun Facts
- Walking on the causeway is like standing on top of a massive bee nest because the stones interlock so perfectly that you can barely fit a piece of paper between them!
- The legend is right about one thing – the path does go to Scotland! Across the ocean on the Scottish island of Staffa, you can find the exact same hexagonal columns inside a sea cave called Fingal’s Cave.
- While most of the stone pillars have 6 sides (hexagons), if you search carefully, you can find rare stones with 4, 5, 7, or even 8 sides. It’s like a real-life math puzzle!
- The tallest stone columns at the Causeway stand a whopping 39 feet (12 meters) high—that is as tall as a four-story building!
Past Lessons
| 39 | October 3, 2022 | (North America) |
| 206 | July 14, 2026 | (North America) |