The Giant’s Causeway is a series of 40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns thought to have been formed from rapidly cooling lava some 50-60 million years ago. In the morning, I left my hostel in Portrush on a rented bicycle and peddled the 10 miles through a strong headwind along the beautiful coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Finn McCool built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.

Text and photo by Stephen Bugno