Giant's Causeway in Ireland. County Antrim Northern Ireland Antrim Mountains

“An Unfinished Romance” is a sentimental story of two people who love each other very much, but cannot be together. Both have families and, accordingly, obligations to loved ones. For many years in a row, the heroes have been meeting at the hotel. They have only a few days a year to be with someone without whom life is impossible. It would seem that the story staged by director Natalya Bulyga is pure drama. But no! The production turned out to be fun and light, because love is not necessarily and not always a tragedy. Screen star Maria Poroshina, who, in addition to many other film roles, played the sorceress Svetlana in Timur Bekmambetov’s films “Night Watch” and “Day Watch,” herself invited Yaroslav Boyko to take part in the play “An Unfinished Romance.” For her, the choice of stage partner was obvious. Their creative tandem originated back in 2003, when the series “Always Say Always” was released. The actors turned out to be so organic in the role of a loving couple that the viewer was left with no doubt: of course they were having an affair!

Studio “Kvartal 95” goes on a world tour with concerts of “Evening Kvartal” The “Evening Kvartal” project is a humorous show with a unique format of intellectual humor. And the humor in “Evening Quarter” is always fresh and relevant, sharp and accurate. The special recognizable style of “Kvartal 95” is a combination of good humor and a positive outlook on life, relevance and sharp political satire, as well as an orientation towards universal and family values. “Evening Quarter” has been the most popular show on Ukrainian television for many years, traditionally attracting millions of viewers.

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County Antrim Northern Ireland

Antrim is one of the six counties that make up Northern Ireland. The population of the district is about 620 thousand people. The capital of the district is Antrim, the largest city is Belfast. Famous natural monument- Giant's Causeway, unique landscape listed World Heritage UNESCO, located in County Antrim.

In ancient times, Antrim was inhabited by Celts, and in the early Middle Ages the area was repeatedly raided by Vikings.

During the Tudor era, Antrim was settled by settlers from Scotland.

The main branch of the economy during the Industrial Revolution was the production of linen fabrics.

There are two main ports in the area - Larne and Belfast. There is a ferry service between the district, England and Scotland.

The Port of Belfast is Northern Ireland's main maritime gateway, with approximately two-thirds of the country's maritime trade concentrated in Belfast. The port handles more than 6 thousand ships a year.

EU migrants will have to earn at least £23,000 before they are allowed to enter the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promises. Such an agreement was signed at the first meeting of Boris Johnsan with the new cabinet of ministers. To obtain a work visa, EU migrants are expected to need to score at least 70 points across a range of categories under a new immigration system modeled on Australia's.

In the first six months of 2019, average UK house prices rose by more than £2,000. Between January and June 2019, the national average house price rose from £311,616 to £313,662. Average house prices in London are falling, but they are rising fastest in small town Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire - at a rate of £185 per day or £33,875 in the first 6 months of 2019. The rise in property prices comes despite many people in the country postponing home purchases due to uncertainty around Brexit.

On Sunday there was business in Coleraine - this is if you drive from Belfast towards Londonderry.
He took his family with him. We went there quickly and directly, along the highway. But we didn’t rush back, we decided to take a ride along the sea (see map).

I’ll make a reservation right away - I’ve been to those parts before, but this is the first time to purposefully return to Belfast by the seashore.
We didn't stop at all the places that deserve attention. Not everything was photographed either. I’ll say more - the bulk of the breathtaking views remained, alas, behind the scenes (there was no goal to make a photo report).

First we stopped at Portstewart. Cool college town. There are five ice cream cafes on the embankment. At low tide, the sea retreats from the embankment and exposes coastal rocks on which you can happily climb.
The kids liked it.

Here, on the embankment, there is a monument to the soldiers who fell in the First World War. Many in Ireland, especially in the north, view British soldiers as occupiers. And yet they don’t fight with monuments here.

Then we drove towards Bushmills. There is a lot to see along this road - both Giant’s Causeway and White Rock beach... (Google rocks).
We stopped for a couple of minutes near the ruins of Dunluce Castle.

The history of this well-worn castle (as well as other tourist details) is easily searched by the already mentioned Google. Personally, at one time I was deeply touched by only one fact - at the beginning of the 17th century, it seems, part of the castle collapsed into the sea. These were kitchens. The abyss swallowed 7 cooks with all their utensils. In short, for me personally this is very special place.

Unfortunately, my photo cannot convey the full grandeur of this picture - blue sea, blue sky, green grass, black ruins, and around there are cows, cows...

This is the village of Bushmills. The best Irish whiskey (from famous brands) is made here.
You can go on an excursion and get drunk.

The town of Ballycastle has excellent fish and chips. In addition to the traditional cod and haddock, there are scallops in batter. Three pounds for half a dozen. Tasty.

Sea view from Ballycastle

After Ballycastle, the road to Cushendal goes slightly away from the sea, into the mountains (here I lied on the map, drawing a quick route).
I didn’t photograph this section of the route at all, although there were plenty of breathtaking views in the mountains and interesting architecture in the villages.

And again the sea. On the other side - behind the scenes - there are rocks up to the sky. Signs about possible rockfalls are everywhere.

From time to time you pass some ruins with explanatory signs. If you don't plan your stop in advance, it's difficult to stop. The road is narrow.

And here the sea remains behind the scenes. And the hills aren't as steep as they were a few miles earlier. And even the grass grows.

On the grass there are always beef and lamb.

From Larne it was possible to continue the journey to Carrickfergus, where the Norman castle remained intact and unharmed. But I go to Carrick quite often... in short, they took a shortcut from Larne.

In the northeast of the island of Ireland, on the shores of the North Channel leading from the Atlantic to the Irish Sea, the low Antrim Mountains rise, just over half a kilometer. They are composed of black basalts - traces of the activity of ancient volcanoes that rose along a giant fault that separated Ireland from Great Britain 60 million years ago. Covers of black lavas flowing from their craters formed the coastal mountains of the Irish coast and Hebrides, on the other side of the North Channel. Amazing rock - this basalt! Liquid, easily flowing in molten form (basalt flows sometimes rush along the slopes of volcanoes at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour), when it cools and hardens, it cracks, forming regular hexagonal prisms. From a distance, the basalt cliffs resemble huge organs with hundreds of black pipes. And when a stream of lava flows into the sea, such bizarre formations sometimes appear that it is difficult not to believe in their magical origin.

This is precisely the joke of nature that can be observed at the foot of Antrim. A kind of “road to nowhere” separates from the volcanic massif here. From above it looks like a dam paved with hexagonal paving stones, extending 150 meters into the sea, and then suddenly breaking off. But the “cobblestones” of this paving stone are a little big: each one is one and a half meters in diameter! The dam rises six meters above the sea and consists of approximately 40,000 basalt columns. It looks like an unfinished bridge across the strait, conceived by some fairy-tale giant, and is called "Giants Causeway" . Even 200 years ago, fierce debate raged around the supposed causes of its appearance. Some scientists believed that the surf exposed a petrified bamboo forest here, others thought that these were huge crystals formed in the waters of the ancient sea. Only later was it proven volcanic origin amazing hexagons.

It is clear that the ancient Celts, who inhabited Ireland a thousand years ago, could not help but notice the Giant's Causeway. And having noticed, they could not help but try to find an explanation for this unusual building, to the best of their imagination and in accordance with the traditions of their folklore. One of the ancient Irish legends tells that the Causeway was built in time immemorial by the giant Finn MacCool to attack his sworn enemy, the giant Finn Gall, who lived in the Hebrides. Finn McCool drove the pillars one by one into the seabed until he had built a dam across the entire strait, after which he settled down to sleep before the duel. Meanwhile, Finn Gall saw the road paved by his rival and decided to outwit him - to attack first. On the shore he saw a sleeping giant and was amazed by him huge growth. "Who is this? Isn't it Finn McCool? - he asked the giant’s wife who approached. “What are you talking about! This is just his son, he won’t reach his father’s waist!” - she lied, deciding to intimidate the enemy. Horrified at the thought of having to fight such a giant, Finn Gall rushed to run along the dam to his native shore. But on the way, he came to his senses and began to destroy the bridge. He was afraid to touch only the beginning of it, for fear of waking McCool. That is why the remains of the dam go out to sea from the foot of Antrim...

For a long time, this legend was considered simply a fictional poetic story, not connected with any specific place. Only at the end of the 17th century did the Bishop of Derry become convinced of the reality of the existence of the Giant's Causeway. But only a hundred years later, when an illustrated description of an unusual natural phenomenon was published with the text of an ancient legend attached, a mass pilgrimage of the public to the coast of the strait began. The popularity of the Giant's Causeway was also facilitated by the fact that it is located only fifty kilometers from large city Belfast, and was easily reached in a day on horseback or by carriage. In addition, the path to the mysterious natural dam ran along a surprisingly picturesque places. The County Antrim coastline has no shortage of beautiful coves framed by black lava cliffs, cozy beaches, rocky islets with mysterious caves and high gloomy capes, protected by slender basalt columns, against which the foamy wave of the surf loudly hits...

It's interesting that on east coast In the Northern Channel, off the coast of Scotland, basalt covers are also found in many places. They look especially impressive on the small island of Staff in the Hebridean archipelago, 120 kilometers from the Finn McCool Bridge. The waves, which undermined the base of the island, exposed orderly rows of 40-meter basalt columns, which form the foundation of Staffa. From a distance, it seems that the island rests on a palisade of black faceted piles.

In one place, the sea eroded the less durable part of the lava flow, carving out a giant cave-niche 60 meters deep. Its walls, base and roof are composed of basalt hexagons similar to those that formed the Giant's Causeway. At one time, Staff Island was visited by the President of the London Geographical Society, the famous naturalist Joseph Banks, a participant in Cook's first voyage. Shocked by the scale of the grandiose cave, quite suitable for a giant to live in, he proposed to name it in honor of the legendary rival Finn McCool. The name, coined by Banks, stuck, and now both giants from ancient legend have a unique natural monument off the coast of the Northern Strait, associated with the history of their rivalry.

Causeway of Giants - unusual a natural phenomenon, which will not leave anyone indifferent, because it seems that it was created not by nature, but by some huge and powerful giant from a fairy tale. LifeGlobe has many articles dedicated to various corners of the Earth, and this miracle of nature occupies a worthy place among them. In the north-eastern part of Ireland, on the shores of the North Channel, there are the low Antrim Mountains, just over half a kilometer high. Their basis is black basalt, they were born thanks to the activity of ancient volcanoes located along a huge fault that tore Ireland away from Great Britain 60 million years ago. The lava from their craters solidified to form these mountains on the Irish coast and on the Hebrides, on the other side of the North Channel.

Basalt is a liquid rock that flows in molten form (basalt rivers sometimes reach speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour from the slopes of volcanoes). After cooling, the basalt becomes hard and becomes covered with cracks, creating hexagonal prisms of the correct shape.

From a distance, the basalt slopes resemble large organs with thousands of black pipes. And if the lava flow reaches the sea, then such bizarre figures are born that it seems as if they appeared thanks to some kind of magic. One of these formations is

The Giant's Causeway is located at the edge of the foothills of Antrim. The original “road to nowhere” departs from the volcanic massif here. From above, it looks like a dam paved with paving stones, protruding into the sea for as much as 150 meters, and ending abruptly at the end. But up close you realize that the cobblestones of this paving stone are slightly too large to be laid by a person: each one is one and a half meters in diameter...

The Causeway of the Giants rises six (and in some places the height reaches 12) meters above the sea and consists of approximately 40 thousand basalt columns. It resembles an unfinished bridge across the strait

This amazing formation serves as clear evidence of the powerful volcanic eruptions. Volcanic lava erupted from cracks and crevices in the ground with tremendous speed and power. It erupted so quickly that it did not have time to solidify before covering the ground in deep, hot places with molten rock.

The Giant's Causeway is sometimes called the Giant's Causeway, and this is natural - after all, just by looking at it, it is clear that if it served as a road for someone, then this someone was very big and strong

The stone columns that form the Giant's Causeway are the most popular example of an unusual formation formed by cooled lava. Although similar formations can be observed in other parts of the world. But there the columns vary greatly in size (from centimeters to meters in diameter) and often differ in the number of faces

The most striking feature of the rocks Giant's Causeway is an orange layer in the form of a clear line on the vertical surface of the basalt. This layer creates a natural terrace, to which a path among the rocks leads. The thickness of the terrace is 10–12 meters, it consists of soft, loose, red-brown material. In fact, this is an intrabasaltic formation - vegetation that has changed chemically under the influence of heat in humid conditions with a lack of oxygen

A few centuries ago, there were fierce discussions about the possible reasons for the formation of the Giant's Causeway. Some scientists claimed that the surf exposed petrified bamboo thickets here, others said that these were giant crystals born at the bottom of the ancient sea. Only with the passage of time was the volcanic origin of the fantastic columns and hexagons proven

It is obvious that the ancient Celts, who inhabited Ireland a thousand years ago, deified the Giant's Causeway. They also tried in every possible way to find an explanation for this unusual pavement, which greatly influenced their folklore and religion.

One of the legends says that Finn Mac Cumal, having decided to engage in battle with the terrible one-eyed enemy Gallus, so as not to get his feet wet, drove a number of columns into the bottom of the Irish Sea, creating a bridge here. Tired, he lay down to sleep. At this time, Gall saw the road built by his enemy and decided to deceive him - to attack first. On the shore he saw a sleeping giant and was afraid of how huge it was. "Who is this? Isn’t that Finn McCool?” - he asked the giant’s wife passing by. “What are you talking about! This is just his son, he is not even tall enough to his father’s waist!” - she lied, deciding to intimidate the enemy even more. Horrified at the thought of having to fight this giant, Gall rushed to run along the pavement towards his shore. But on the way, he decided to destroy this bridge. He was afraid to touch only the first part of it, for fear of waking McCool. That is why the remains of the dam lead to the sea from the foot of the mountain...

According to another legend, Finn's wife fed Gall with cakes, inside which she baked flat iron bars, and when the giant began to break his teeth on them, she gave the second cake, a plain one, to her son, who calmly chewed it. Imagining how strong the father of this rather large baby was, Gall ran away in fear, breaking a bridge along the way.

For many years, these legends were considered simply made-up beautiful stories, not even connected to any exact place. It was only at the end of the 17th century that the Bishop of Derry became convinced that the Giant's Causeway actually existed. But only a hundred years later, when an illustrated description of a unique natural phenomenon was published (legends about the giant were also described there), a mass pilgrimage of tourists to the coast of Ireland began

The popularity of the Giant's Causeway is also due to the fact that it is located only fifty kilometers from Belfast, and it is very easy to reach it in just a day on horseback. In addition, the path to the mysterious dam led along amazingly beautiful natural places

In these places there is no shortage of beautiful bays, quiet beaches, rocky islets with deep caves and sharp gloomy capes, protected by powerful basalt columns, against which foamy waves crash noisily

It is curious that on the eastern shore of the North Channel, near the coast of Scotland, the same basalt blocks are found in many places. They look especially impressive on the small island of Staff in the Hebridean archipelago, 120 kilometers from the Giant’s Causeway. The waves grinding away the shores of the island exposed even rows of 40-meter columns. From a distance it seems that the island lies on a foundation made of these black sharpened piles

New Zealand also has amazing rock formations on the shore - the Moeraki Boulders

February 3, 2013 | Categories: Places , Travel , Nature , Photo