Today our real explorations began. We started our morning at the Giants Causeway. This unique world heritage site is an excellent display of volcanic geology that has shaped this part of Northern Ireland. Our tour guide, Cliff, took us on a 2 1/2 hour tour around the site explaining this geology, plants, and some of the unique animals that live here. It was exciting to see the students getting excited about what they were seeing. Of course being right along the ocean with phenomenal views, it is a pretty easy sell.
After lunch on the roof of the visitor center (the visitor center is actually under ground), we went to our next destination. I did not tell the students where we were going, so when we turned the corner in the road, they're right before them were the ruins of Dunluce castle. This is one of the most picturesque castle ruins in all of Ireland. C. S. Lewis is said to have used these particular ruins as the basis for Cair Paravel in the Chronicles of Narnia. We had a great time exploring the ruins and finding out about life at that time period.
After visiting the castle, we continued on down the road to a site where the cliffs are made of chalk
and end at a beach into the sea. Because of this the sea storms shape the cliffs and make beautiful formations. There are arches and sea caves to explore. The students found one sea cave that went about 300 feet into the side of the cliff. This unique cave had some of the features that we will see in the cave we will be visiting next week. However, they also found the acoustics were fabulous and started to sing Holy Holy Holy in the cave.
All of this filled up a pretty full day for us. Tomorrow we will be visiting the dune ecosystem just a short hike from where we are staying. Some of the students have already discovered this, but tomorrow will be a much more extensive visit.
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