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front the breakers dashed into the entrance, flinging the spray half-way
to the roof, while the sound rang up through the arches like thunder. It
seemed to me the haunt of the old Norsemen's sea-gods!
We left the road near Dunluce and walked along the smooth beach to
the cliffs that surround the Causeway. Here we obtained a guide, and
descended to one of the caves which can be entered from the shore.
Opposite the entrance a bare rock called Sea Gull Isle, rises out of the
sea like a church steeple. The roof at first was low, but we shortly came
to a branch that opened on the sea, where the arch was forty-six feet in
height. The breakers dashed far into the cave, and flocks of sea-birds
circled round its mouth. The sound of a gun was like a deafening peal
of thunder, crashing from arch to arch till it rolled out of the cavern.
On the top of the hill a splendid hotel is erected for visitors to the
Causeway; after passing this we descended to the base of the cliffs,
which are here upwards of four hundred feet high, and soon began to
find, in the columnar formation of the rocks, indications of our
approach. The guide pointed out some columns which appeared to have
been melted and run together, from which Sir Humphrey Davy

attributed the formation of the Causeway to the action of fire. Near this
is the Giant's Well, a spring of the purest water, the bottom formed by
three perfect hexagons, and the sides of regular columns. One of us
observing that no giant had ever drunk from it, the old man
answered--"Perhaps not: but it was made by a giant--God Almighty!"
From the well, the Causeway commences--a mass of columns, from
triangular to octagonal, lying in compact forms, and extending into the
sea. I was somewhat disappointed at first, having supposed the
Causeway to be of great height, but I found the Giant's Loom, which is
the highest part of it, to be but about fifty feet from the water. The
singular appearance of the columns and the many strange forms which
they assume, render it nevertheless, an object of the greatest interest.
Walking out on the rocks we came to the Ladies' Chair, the seat, back,
sides and footstool, being all regularly formed by the broken columns.
The guide said that any lady who would take three drinks from the
Giant's Well, then sit in this chair and think of any gentleman for whom
she had a preference, would be married before a twelvemonth. I asked
him if it would answer as well for gentlemen, for by a wonderful
coincidence we had each drank three times at the well! He said it would,
and thought he was confirming his statement.
A cluster of columns about half-way up the cliff is called the Giant's
Organ--from its very striking resemblance to that instrument, and a
single rock, worn by the waves into the shape of a rude seat, is his chair.
A mile or two further along the coast, two cliffs project from the range,
leaving a vast semicircular space between, which, from its resemblance
to the old Roman theatres, was appropriated for that purpose by the
Giant. Halfway down the crags are two or three pinnacles of rock,
called the Chimneys, and the stumps of several others can be seen,
which, it is said, were shot off by a vessel belonging to the Spanish
Armada, in mistake for the towers of Dunluce Castle. The vessel was
afterwards wrecked in the bay below, which has ever since been called
Spanish Bay, and in calm weather the wreck may be still seen. Many of
the columns of the Causeway have been carried off and sold as pillars
for mantels--and though a notice is put up threatening any one with the
rigor of the law, depredations are occasionally made.
Returning, we left the road at Dunluce, and took a path which led along
the summit of the cliffs. The twilight was gathering, and the wind blew

with perfect fury, which, combined with the black and stormy sky, gave
the coast an air of extreme wildness. All at once, as we followed the
winding path, the crags appeared to open before us, disclosing a
yawning chasm, down which a large stream, falling in an unbroken
sheet, was lost in the gloom below. Witnessed in a calm day, there may
perhaps be nothing striking about it, but coming upon us at once,
through the gloom of twilight, with the sea thundering below and a
scowling sky above, it was absolutely startling.
The path at last wound, with many a steep and slippery bend, down the
almost perpendicular crags, to the shore, at the foot of a giant isolated