game of thrones, Dunluce castle, Mussenden Temple, Giants causeway, Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Causeway Coast
The Causeway Coast, particularly the Giant's Causeway itself, must be the Province's most renowned area internationally and boasts the only World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland. Designated in 1989, it is a place of extraordinary beauty encompassing 18 miles of spectacular coastal scenery with dramatic cliffs and headlands broken by the wide sweep of fresh sandy beaches backed by dunes. Dark volcanic rocks and brilliant white chalk, eroded by the vigorous North Atlantic, form magnificent geological features including the renowned Giant's Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge


The Giant's Causeway formed where molten lava flowed into a valley. The lavas became solid red-hot rock, but as they cooled they contracted and vertical cracks opened which ran to the depth of the new rocks, so forming columns. Thus the columns developed at right angles to the cooling surface. If the process had been entirely even all the columns would have been hexagonal, but in fact only half of them are. The columns also shrank vertically which is how the convex and concave 'ball and socket' joints were formed. Four, seven and eight-sided columns are known and there are imperfect instances of nine and ten-sided columns.

A Tale of Two Giants
The Giant's Causeway looks man-made, so who was its colossal creator? There are many legends about Finn MacCool and the Causeway Coast. Some say that he built the Causeway to bring his wife across to Ulster from the Scottish island of Staffa.


Another story told is that be built the Causeway so that his great rival Benandonner, a Scottish giant, could travel on dry land to engage in a decisive battle. When Finn saw him approaching he took fright as Benandonner was a larger and more fiercesome rival than he had anticipated. Finn fled home where his wife Oonagh disguised him as a baby and placed him in a cradle. When Benandonner appeared, Oonagh invited him in for tea and asked him to keep quiet so as not to disturb Finn's 'baby'. Benandonner looked at the massive 'baby', took fright and exclaiming that if this was the child he had no wish to meet the father, fled back to Scotland. He ripped up the Causeway as he went in fear of the awful Finn pursuing him home.


Mussenden Temple
located in the beautiful surroundings of Downhill Demesne near Castlerock in County Londonderry. It perches dramatically on a 120 ft cliff top, high above the Atlantic Ocean on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland, offering spectacular views westwards over Downhill Strand towards Magilligan Point and County Donegal and to the east Castlerock beach towards Portstewart, Portrush and Fair Head.


The temple was built in 1785 and forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey.


Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple

Downhill House
from 1818 can one glimpse something of what the place was supposed to be. Frederick Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol, also the Lord Bishop of Derry (perhaps four hours away by horse), had commissioned the building in the early 1770s. Fire damaged the bulk of the place in 1851. What was left of it after the Second World War was dismantled by 1950.


Dunluce Castle History
Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, built the first castle at Dunluce, In the 13th century. The earliest features of the castle are two large drum towers about 9 metres (30 ft) in diameter on the eastern side, both relics of a stronghold built here by the McQuillans after they became lords of the "an Rúta" (territory) in the early 1500s.

Later Dunluce Castle became the home of the chief of the Clan MacDonnell of Antrim and later John Mor MacDonald the 6th chief Clan Donald of Scotland. In 1584 with the passing off John Mor MacDonald, the Antrim Glens and Castle were seized by Sorley Boy MacDonnell, making it the seat again solely of the MacDonnell Clan. Sorley Boy took the castle, keeping it for himself and improving it in the Scottish style. Sorley Boy swore allegiance to the crown and his son Randal was made 1st Earl of Antrim by King James I.


Dunluce Castle
served as the seat of the Earl of Antrim until the impoverishment of the MacDonnells in 1690, following the Battle of the Boyne and the Clan picking the losing side of King James. Since that time, the castle has deteriorated and parts were scavenged to serve as materials for nearby buildings

Dunluce Castle Game of Thrones
The Castle has become a tourist hotspot not only for the stunning views on offer but more recently its claim to fame with being used in the iconic show Game of Thrones and used as Seat of House Greyjoy, the great castle of Pyke.



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