The Giant’s Causeway, one of Northern Ireland’s key visitor sites, is under attack by some of the 650,000 visitors who come each year to view the thousands of nearly-perfectly-hexagonal columns that make the site spectacular.
Coins have been wedged between the columns by visitors as sentimental gestures, similar to ‘love locks’ in other places.
Cliff Henry, an official of the National Trust, told the Irish Times newspaper that “The coins are rusting and expanding to three times their original thickness, which puts huge pressure on the surrounding rock, causing it to crumble. Unsightly streaks of copper, nickel and iron oxides are also staining the stones where the coins are corroding. The coins here also have accelerated corrosion because they are often soaked in saltwater spray and the mixture of metals means they break down faster.”
While the Causeway was actually formed by volcanic action between 50 and 60 million years ago, popular legend has it that it was built by Irish giant Finn McCool as a way to cross the Irish Sea and confront a Scottish rival giant, Benandonner.
