WATCH: Giant's Causeway goes GREEN for St Patrick's Day

The Giant's Causeway has been draped by a spectacular blanket of green light to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

By The Newsroom

Published 17th Mar 2016, 12:59 BST- 1 min read

Updated 17th Mar 2016, 13:31 BST

The Giant's Causeway has been draped by a spectacular blanket of Green light as it gets ready to celebrate St Patricks Day. Picture: Matt Steele/McAuley Multimedia.

According to legend, the columns in Co Antrim are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner.

Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he.

Fionn’s wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the ‘baby’, he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants.

He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this