Latest news with #KirstinLemon
Dublin Live
02-06-2025
- Dublin Live
Popular tourist site left damaged as people 'want to leave a token of their visit'
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info A popular tourist site is under threat from well-meaning visitors who "leave a token" of their visit. The Giant's Causeway, located in County Antrim, was Ireland's first UNESCO World Heritage Site - a spectacle which dates back nearly 60 million years and comprises roughly 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns. According to the National Trust, the Causeway is situated at the base of cliffs on the outer limits of the Antrim plateau by the Atlantic Ocean. It is steeped in legend, has been the source of scientific debate, and has even inspired artists. It's also a highly popular tourist destination, and holidaymakers have long found their own way of honouring the site - cramming coins into the cracks of the rock for luck or love. However, the National Trust has now warned people not to do this. (Image: Getty Images) Dr Cliff Henry, the National Trust's nature engagement officer for the site, told the Telegraph: "We know that visitors really love and cherish the Giant's Causeway, and many form deep personal connections to this special landscape. "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." The issue with the tradition is that the inserted coins rust and expand, meaning they increase the pressure on the rock and contribute to its crumbling. Meanwhile, the NT and partners have hired specialists to remove as many coins as possible, with the costs expected to reach more than £30,000. Although it's only a minority of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who insert the coins, the NT thinks the practice has escalated over the last ten years or so, reports the BBC. Dr Kirstin Lemon explained that the advice of the Geological Survey to the NT was to remove as many as they could in an effort to halt any further effects on the area, in addition to tackling any potential effects arising from chemicals. (Image: Getty Images) Dr Henry told the broadcaster that once a coin has been inserted into the rock, it rusts at an "accelerated level" due to the area's atmosphere. He added that he's seen parts of the feature where the corners have "popped off." He said: "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." According to the official UNESCO website, the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast is an area of worldwide geological importance and has inspired tales of giants stepping over the ocean to Scotland. It's also been a tourist attraction for around 300 years and is considered a Northern Irish symbol.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Giant's Causeway visitors urged not to jam coins into iconic 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 problem. At 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 crevice. They 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 luck. But, like that tradition, the coins are causing problems, and now visitors are being asked to keep their spare change in their pockets. In Paris, it has been made illegal to attach a padlock after part of the bridge collapsed in 2014. At 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 so. Hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals visit each year and only a fraction leave behind this unwanted memento. But 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 causeway. It is easy to see at first glance the discolouration caused by the coins - a reddish-brown wash over the surface. Dr 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 problem. Dr 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." In Pictures: Celebrating the Giant's Causeway Cash deal for cross border tourism routes welcomed Walking in the footsteps of giants for free or a fee Giant's Causeway's 1m visitors in year
