Geo-holiday in NORTHERN IRELAND

The Antrim coast of Northern Ireland boasts three of the Top 100 Great Geosites of the UK and Ireland (as defined by the Geological Society of London).  This January I was fortunate enough to have an excuse to visit this beautiful country and tick of a couple of these sites. In this month's blog we look at how the Giant's Causeway tells the story of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, and examine the peculiar geology at Loughareema.

Top Geosites in Northern Ireland

Giant's Causeway

Attracting millions of visitors each year, the Giant's Causeway makes for an impressive coastal walk with peculiar rock formations. As would be expected in January in Ireland, the sun didn't shine for my visit there - but come rain or shine, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is well worth a visit.

View across the Giant's Causeway.

The coastline here is made up of numerous thick basaltic lavas, separated by mudstones that were deposited 55 - 60 million years ago. At this time, The Atlantic Ocean was only just beginning to open, and Greenland was joined to the UK. Large scale upwelling in the mantle between Greenland and Europe began to tear the continental plates apart and huge volumes of magma was spewed across what is now named the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). These lavas cover much of Northern Ireland, and are exposed in the West of Scotland, for example the Iceland or Staffa.  

Columnar Jointing.

Exposed on a headland protruding into the Atlantic Ocean is the famous Middle basalts, which is made up of tall hexagonal pillars of basalt. The columnar jointing is formed due to the cooling of molten lava. The basalt flowed from a volcano to the northwest as ponded in a shallow depression, forming a lava lake. As it cooled and solidified, the lava contracted (since solid rock is more dense and takes up less space than liquid lava). As it contracted, joints formed, both as hexagonal pillars as seen in the images, and ball and socket joints within these pillars.

Loughareema

Although Giant's Causeway may be the 'superstar' geosite along the Antrim Coast, Loughareema (located close to Ballycastle) is well worth a visit. The name translates in Irish to 'Vanishing Lake', named so due to it's mysterious periodic emptying.

Loughareema. In the snow and full of water!

'Apres Geology'

On a wet and wild day outside along the Antim Coast, warming indoors is defiantly require in preparation for exploring the cultural sites of Northern Ireland!

• The Causeway Hotel: After exploring the coastline at Giant's Causeway, the hotel offers brilliant hot drinks and cake! Save your receipt and you will not have to pay for attraction parking!

• Doors of Thrones Pub Crawl: Northern Ireland is Game of Thrones MAD due to the filming of the famous HBO series. Sortm damaged trees from one of the filming sites (The Dark Hedges) have been skilfully carved into a series of doors and send to bars throughout the country. These are really more works of art than doors, and well worth tracking down! I can thoroughly recommend the door (and the hospitality) at Mary McBride's Bar in the village of Cushendun!  

• Titanic Belfast: It is well worth spending some time exploring the city of Belfast. It is clear that major redevelopment of the ship-building ports is well underway, and the Titanic experience is a spectacular museum both inside and out.

-- Happy Exploring ---