USAWA

By Al Myers

The rugged coastline of the Giant’s Causeway.

I know I keep carrying on about the great time I had in Belfast for the Gold Cup, but I have another story I would like to share with everyone.  First of all, Stevie had invited me to stay with him so I got to “live like a local” for a week.  Stevie and Heather (along with their great dog Hamish) treated me to a week I’ll never forget. They were extremely gracious hosts.  Stevie knew all the best pubs in town and we had a fun time, but those stories are more suited for private conversations – not a public blog.

A few days after the meet Stevie took Brandon and me to the Giant’s Causeway located at the northern point of Northern Ireland.  It’s a place I’ve always wanted to see because of its unique large rock formations.  We enjoyed a great scenic tour getting there which really set the stage for seeing the causeway. We were fortunate to have a nice day with clear skies for our visit (which is a RARITY in Northern Ireland).  On the way as we were driving along the coast Brandon asked “What is that land?” as we looked across the northern channel looking at a large land mass on the horizon.  Stevie replied, “that’s Scotland”, which left both of us amazed how close Northern Ireland is to Scotland!

Once we reached the Giant’s Causeway we had a little hike before actually getting to see this marvel of nature.  You’ve heard the expression “pictures don’t do it justice”, well, the Giant’s Causeway should be the example of that!  I’ve never seen such a large expanse of strange hexagonal stones stacked up in what seems like perfect symmetry.  Parts of it look like its man-made – but you know it’s not.  It all natural made from volcanic activity in some strange manner that I can’t explain.

This story of the Giant’s Causeway isn’t complete without the legend on how it came to be.  Stevie filled us in on this folk tale and it seemed a little unbelievable to me, but then again there’s leprechauns in Ireland so who am I to question it.    I’ll give a quick summary here.  Apparently at some past point in time there was an Irish giant living in the area who had a rival giant who lived across the channel in Scotland and they would hurl insults at each other across the water.  Finally things got personal to the Irish giant and he decided it was time to “face off” and fight the Scottish giant so he built this huge bridge out of stones (the remnants which are now the causeway) between Northern Ireland and Scotland.  However once reaching Scotland he snuck up on the Scottish giant and saw that he was MUCH bigger and stronger than himself, so he fled back to Ireland in fear. The Scottish giant seen him flee and then gave pursuit chasing the Irish giant across the bridge. Upon reaching home, the Irish giant ran into his house and told his wife what was about to happen – that he’s no match for the strength of the Scottish giant and he was on his way to beat him up.  His wife then took matters into her hands, wrapped the Irish giant in a blanket, laid him in the bed, and told him not to speak.  When the Scottish giant reached their house and asked where the Irish giant was, the wife told him that he was out hunting and it was just her there with their small child. The Scottish giant immediately noticed the large size of the Irish giant’s child (which was the Irish Giant!) and thought that this kid’s dad must be huge!  The nice wife then made the Scottish giant some biscuits but she secretly hid an Iron bar in them.  As the Scottish giant bit into the biscuit it chipped a tooth!  The wife profusely apologized and said that never happens to her husband when he eats her biscuits as he has super strong teeth!  Now the Scottish giant was feeling that he may have taken on a fight he couldn’t win, so he flees back to Scotland tearing down the bridge as he goes so the Irish giant couldn’t pursue him, leaving only the Giant’s Causeway on the Northern Ireland coast.

Now that’s a good story!  I still don’t get the moral of it though.  I assume it is that a wife can be quite convincing in telling a lie, or possibly you better not complain about your wife’s cooking or you will get an iron bar in your biscuit.  Either way, it does make a good point about a wife cleaning up a mess her husband got himself into……… but I’m getting off track here so back to the real story.

Lifting a Giant’s Stone on the Giant’s Causeway

As we walked along the causeway I was amused watching Stevie pick up stone after stone as we walked along the rocks.  He was like a little boy in a candy shop finding perfect stone after perfect stone.  There were lots of tourists there and I noticed them watching Stevie with intrigue as he was rassling around with the stones.  I’ll say it – he did look a bit like a crazy man showing his extreme enthusiasm playing with those rocks.   Upon leaving we came upon a big stone just sitting right by the path leading down to the causeway.  Stevie and I looked at it as it had called our name and our instincts of being stone lifters and all round weightlifters took over and we just had to lift it!  The beauty of lifting stones is like catching fish – the story only get bigger after the fact.  Stevie estimated the stone to be well over 300 pounds, but both of us knew deep down it wasn’t really that heavy.  But that doesn’t really matter anyways, as it still gave me a great sense of accomplishment lifting a Giant’s Stone, which hopefully as the story grows it will become I lifted a Giant Stone!!!

Enjoying a Bushmills in Bushmills!

After the long day, Stevie took us to a nice little pub in Bushmills which is located only a few miles from the Giant’s Causeway.  Brandon and I had a couple of drinks to celebrate a day we wouldn’t forget!

(BTW – I did leave the stone right where I found it. It’s located by the path just as you descend down to the causeway.  You can’t miss it.)