The 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns that make up Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway were formed by the cooling and cracking of lava if you follow the science. But in local lore, they are the work of the Irish giant Finn McCool, who long ago created a causeway to Scotland by tossing chunks of the Antrim coast into the Irish Sea. His Scottish rival Benandonner later tore up the path in order to keep Finn at bay; its fragments have since settled back into the unique shoreline.

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