Near Belfast there is also a famous «Druidical circle», or a large amphitheatre, enclosed by high mounds of earth, where the ancient Druids used to meet for their heathen worship. As we stood in that great circle, beside a rude altar of stones, it made us shudder to think that hundreds of human beings had probably been cruelly sacrificed there as offerings to the gods of the Druids. What a happy, blessed thing it is to know that such dreadful crimes can never again be committed here, under the name of religion.
While at Belfast, we made a delightful excursion to Shane’s Castle, the seat of Lord O’Neil. Shane’s Castle and the O’Neil estate are situated upon Lough Neagh, the largest lake in Great Britain. There is a legend that this sheet of water covers land that was once cultivated, cottages, castles, and even villages. The peasants say that there was once an enchanted well, which was always kept covered with a heavy stone, lest its waters should rise and overwhelm the land. One day, a careless woman went to this well to get water to boil her potatoes in, and hearing her baby cry, ran home without waiting to cover the well, which began to leap up in a great column, like a water-spout of an underground sea, and poured out so fast and furious that before many hours the whole valley was overflowed, and that night, the moon smiled to see herself reflected in a new lake.
On our route from Belfast to the Giant’s Causeway, we passed through several towns, of little importance now, though of some historical note such as Carrickfergus, Larne, and Glenarm. This last is a beautifully situated town, with a pleasant little bay, which usually affords a safe shelter for shipping on a coast somewhat renowned for wrecks and disasters. Here is a fine castle, which is the seat of the ancient family of the MacDonnels, Earls of Antrim. Scarcely any thing in the world can be grander or more beautiful than the coast road all the way from Glenarm to the Giant’s Causeway. It is too fine to be described; it should be painted, not written about.
We reached the Causeway late in the evening so hungry and tired that we were very glad to get our supper and went to bed without putting our heads out of doors. In the morning we engaged a guide and set out on our sightseeing tour.
The Causeway is formed by a vast collection of rocky columns mostly as regular in shape as though cut by masonry five-sided, six-sided, seven or eight-sided, piled and packed together, varying much in height, but little in size. Some form a floor almost as even as a city pavement some form gradual steps leading down to the sea and some tower upward, like spires and turrets.
There is a very singular collection of these columns on the side of the highest cliff, a hundred and twenty feet in height, called «the Giant’s Organ», from their resemblance to the pipes of that instrument.
According to legend, the mighty Giant, Finn McCool, was musical in his taste, and used to give himself «a little innocent diversion» here, after his hard labours in building the Causeway. Even now, when the sea roars, and the deep thunder rolls along the rocky coast, they say «the giant is playing on his big stone organ under the cliff».
12. The county of Antrim is described as…
1) picturesque but poor.
2) rich and successful.
3) the land of vast plains.
