Latest news with #Giant'sCauseway
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Tourists urged to stop jamming coins into iconic Giant's Causeway rocks
Tourists risk destroying Northern Ireland 's iconic Giant's Causeway rocks by jamming coins between them, experts warned. National Trust engagement officer Dr Cliff Henry said the discarded tender break and discolour the 60-million-year-old rocks by rusting and expanding. At least 684,000 tourists visited the County Antrim site last year, with some leaving behind the unwanted memento due to 'copy cat' behaviour. 'The coins are causing damage and we are urging people to stop the practice,' Dr Henry said. 'They are rusting and expanding, which causes the rock to crumble giant.' 'The rusting metal in there is starting to leach. The iron and nickel and copper is leaching out over the rocks and it looks unsightly.' The National Trust is set to spend £30,000 removing the coins, with a specialist stonemason extracting around 10 per cent of them so far. It will also erect signs at the world-famous site warning visitors against leaving the objects in an effort to 'protect and care for places so people and nature can thrive'. Dr Kirstin Lemon, of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, added: 'The advice is to see if we can remove as many of those coins as we can. "By removing them, it means we're stopping any further physical impact on the site itself. We're also stopping that chemical impact as well." The discarded coins show a range of visitors from all around the world, with most coming from the UK and EU, as well as the far east and USA, the National Trust said. Last year, the Giant's Causeway received about 684,000 visits. In 2019, there were nearly 1m visits, according to the BBC. According to legends, the site was formed by Irish giant Finn McCool who created the causeway to get across the Irish Sea to face his rival, the Scottish giant Benandonner. The mighty Benandonner then tore up most of the causeway to prevent Finn from getting back to Scotland. Another legend has it that the causeway was built so Finn could meet a Scottish maid he was enamoured with. However, most geologists agree it was created by an outpouring of Basalt lava 60 million years ago around the time the North Atlantic was opening up "It's an icon for Northern Ireland. If we can't look after this, what's the hope for the rest of the country? We really need to be looking after the causeway as best we can,' Dr Henry told the BBC.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Tourists issued warning after coins damage UK's world heritage site
Visitors are damaging Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, a World Heritage Site, by inserting coins into the cracks of its iconic stones. The basalt rock columns of the Giant's Causeway in north Antrim are being harmed by the coins, which range from UK currency to euros and even money from the Far East and the United States. The coins rust and expand, putting pressure on the surrounding rock, staining it, and causing it to crumble. The National Trust estimates that removing the coins will cost more than £30,000 and has asked visitors to stop leaving coins at the site. Dr Cliff Henry, National Trust nature engagement officer at the Giant's Causeway said visitors should leave no trace. 'We know that visitors really love and cherish the Giant's Causeway, and many form deep personal connections to this special landscape,' he said. 'We know some may want to leave a token of their visit, but the coins are causing damage and we are urging people to stop the practice and to leave no trace so this natural wonder remains special for future generations.' He pointed to a report by The British Geological Survey that concludes the coins wedged into the joints and cracks in the rock are having a detrimental impact on the basalt rock of the Giant's Causeway, both aesthetically and physically. 'The report has found that fracturing and disintegration of the basalt rock adjacent to joints and cracks into which coins have been inserted is the result of the 'expansive delamination of the coins upon oxidation',' he said. 'In other words, 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 National Trust, in partnership with Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust, employed specialists in stone conservation to remove as many of the coins as they could without causing further damage on ten test locations. They hope to go on to remove all the remaining coins, and have appealed to visitors not to leave any more. Mr Henry added: 'It is hoped that if visitors see fewer coins in the stones and hear appeals to stop the damaging practice the problem can be solved.' 'Many coins have a centre of one metal, with a thin coating of another. UK 'copper' coins, since 1992, have a steel core with only a thin layer of copper on the outside, while five, 10 and 20 pence pieces are nickel-plated steel. 'When coins start to corrode, the steel often corrodes faster and separates from the different metal of the outer layer. This delamination causes the basalt to flake. '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. 'We protect and care for places so people and nature can thrive. We are appealing to visitors to help us protect the World Heritage Site by stopping the practice of inserting coins into the Causeway stones.' While geologists will say that the causeway was created by an outpouring of Basalt lava 60 million years ago around the time the North Atlantic was opening up, there are also legends that it was formed by an Irish giant Finn McCool. The National Trust protects and cares for more than 40,000 columns at the Giant's Causeway, which is Northern Ireland's first
BBC News
27-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Giant's Causeway visitors urged not to jam coins into rocks
The Giant's Causeway has faced many threats to its survival, from mythical fights between giants to coastal erosion and rising sea levels. Now there's a new first, you don't notice them but as soon as you see one, you start to see them everywhere - hundreds of them, in every fissure and are coins, inserted into the tiny gaps between one of Northern Ireland's most famous and photographed natural resources, the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway. Like the padlocks left on the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris, people often leave the coins behind for love or like that tradition, the coins are causing problems, and now visitors are being asked to keep their spare change in their Paris, it has been made illegal to attach a padlock after part of the bridge collapsed in the Giant's Causeway, the practice started years ago – but the caretakers for the site, the National Trust, believe it has increased significantly in scale in the last decade or of thousands of tourists and locals visit each year and only a fraction leave behind this unwanted the coins are having a direct impact on the rocks themselves. The worst affected are the basalt columns that make up The Loom – 10 ft high leaning towers of rock. They are a slightly lighter colour than the iconic hexagonal black basalt at the point of the is easy to see at first glance the discolouration caused by the coins - a reddish-brown wash over the Cliff Henry, nature engagement officer with the National Trust, said the rocks are affected on a number of levels."People see others put coins in, so they copycat, they take a coin out of their pocket and they might take a stone off the ground to hammer the coin in, but they might miss and chip the stone itself so that's doing damage." He added: "Once the coin is in there it starts to rust and due to the atmosphere here it rusts at an accelerated level. "The coin then expands and that's putting pressure on the joint near the edge so we have seen on a number of places here that the corners have popped off."And the rusting metal in there is starting to leach. The iron and nickel and copper is leaching out over the rocks and it looks unsightly."He said they're appealing to people to stop inserting the coins before more damage is done to these 60-million-year-old rocks."On a geological timescale, this is very rapid erosion." A report from the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland shed some light on the Kirstin Lemon said: "The advice of the Geological Survey to the National Trust is to see if we can remove as many of those coins as we can."By removing them, it means we're stopping any further physical impact on the site itself. We're also stopping that chemical impact as well."She said she hoped that by removing coins, it would stop others adding more.A specialist stonemason has started the work and has removed about 10% of them so far."He's done some test sites already so we know we can take these coins out without doing damage to the stones themselves," said Dr Henry."We want him to do it - we don't want the general public to do that, we don't want to cause any further damage." Signs will also be put up and visitors are already warned not to insert the coins by tour guides at the Giant's Causeway, like Mark Adams."I think it's a simple thing of wanting to leave something of themselves behind," he said."But if you want to leave something behind, take a photo, put it online, it'll be there forever."Last year, the Giant's Causeway received about 684,000 visits. The numbers are steadily climbing back to their pre-pandemic levels. There were nearly a million visits in 2019. The National Trust said not only is it Northern Ireland's most valuable natural phenomenon, it is important for the economy too."It's an icon for Northern Ireland - if we can't look after this, what's the hope for the rest of the country?," said Dr Henry."We really need to be looking after the causeway as best we can."
