Exploring myths and legends in the West of the British Isles

This is the second in a three-part series about a Viking cruise to the British Isles. Today we explore parts of Northern Ireland, Wales and Ireland.

After hiking up a hill overlooking the famous Giant's Causeway, I paused for breath next to a towering basalt rock column called “The Organ” and looked out over the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.

Resembling a church organ fit for a giant, the rocks are aptly named, and are the result of a volcanic eruption nearly 60 million years ago.

The hike was worth it to see the organ up close and to get a bird's eye view of the Giant's Causeway, which stretches for six kilometres along the coast. This geological wonder consists of about 40,000 mostly hexagonal basalt columns formed by the cooling and shrinking of lava flows after the eruption.

Each of the closely packed columns is of a different size and shape. For example, the columns on the cliff where the organ is located are on average 100 metres high, while another section of free-standing columns, called the chimneys, reach a height of 12 metres.

The names of the rock formations are not without reason. The surreal and dramatic terrain is steeped in myths and legends. It involves how a powerful Irish giant named Finn McCool created the causeway to reach Scotland and fight his rival, the giant Benandonner. Legend has it that the chimneys are the pillars still standing of McCool's house.

As I begin my hike, I pass a large, oddly shaped rock on the shore known as the “Giant's Boot,” which was supposedly lost by McCool. Children were climbing all over it, unaware that others were waiting to photograph the legendary rock.

Nearby, it is clusters of basalt columns arranged like giant honeycombs that attract most tourists. Some of them sit on smaller columns near the shore, while others try their luck and walk on slippery rocks towards the sea to catch a glimpse of the submerged columns.

The Giant's Causeway was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986 and has been attracting tourists for centuries. It had long been on my bucket list of places to see and I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit it during a 15-day Viking cruise my daughter and I took around the British Isles.

Halfway through the six-country voyage, we visited Bergen in Norway, Viking's home port and our departure point, and travelled around parts of northern Scotland – the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, the Highlands and Edinburgh.

We now had a full day to enjoy Northern Ireland before heading to Holyhead, Wales, on the west coast of the UK and then on to Dublin, Ireland. The final leg of the trip takes us to Liverpool, Dover and London, England, with just one full day at sea.

At each port of call, Viking offers included excursions and a selection of specialty excursions for which guests pay extra. We enjoyed all of our included tours, but went on four specialty tours during the voyage. In Northern Ireland, the included excursion is a city tour of Belfast.

Our 5.5-hour visit to Northern Ireland, while primarily focused on seeing the Giant's Causeway, also included two stops for sightseeing from afar but still good photo spots. The first was the ruins of Dunluce Castle on the edge of a basalt outcrop on the Antrim coast.

I was not surprised when our guide told us that the castle was once used as a backdrop for the popular game of Thrones TV series. However, I was astonished to learn that Winston Churchill was once a co-owner of the castle, but left his share of the centuries-old castle to the Northern Ireland government in 1928.

We also stopped at a lookout point to look at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which was built in 1755 by salmon fishermen so they didn't have to rely on boats to reach the island. Today, salmon fishing is a thing of the past, but visitors can still cross a 20-metre wire/rope bridge to cross a gorge and visit the island.

Wales

The next day we drove to Holyhead, Wales, where my daughter and I took a Viking Experience tour to visit the charming Welsh seaside town of Beaumaris, a Norman word meaning “beautiful marshland.”

Our knowledgeable guide, Neil Johnstone, previously worked as an archaeologist in the area for twenty years and discovered the remains of a medieval court of a Welsh prince on the island of Anglesey in 1992.

After a 45-minute bus ride, we parked near the town's main tourist attraction, Beaumaris Castle, a World Heritage Site. Beaumaris Castle is considered “the greatest castle never built” because it was never completed, despite being under construction for nearly four decades between 1295 and 1330. The moated castle was intended to be the last of the “Iron Ring of Castles” built in north Wales by England's King Edward I, but Johnstone explained that construction stopped when money ran out as the king was busy fighting in Scotland. The inner walls still needed their main towers and turrets, and the upper floors had yet to be added.

“The English built these huge castles because they were afraid of the Welsh threat,” said Johnstone. “He built four castles in north-west Wales – Caernaron, the biggest and most iconic, Conwy, the most beautiful, Harlech and this one in Beaumaris, which was built 10 years after the others. It's concentric, meaning it has two lines of defence and it's symmetrical. It also has water defences so you could supply the castle by ship. So if you're a castle freak, this is the most perfect castle.”

At the risk of becoming a “castle freak,” I asked Johnstone how he became aware of the Welsh prince’s castle, which was last inhabited before 1282, when King Edward I defeated the Welsh.

“Local legend says there was a field of court, but nobody was looking for it. It was buried in the sand and when we uncovered the sand the walls were about waist high,” he told me, adding that 25 percent of the castle's remains have been excavated, including the Great Hall of Llys Rhosyr, one of the royal courts of the medieval Welsh prince.

Following Johnstone's discovery, the castle's great hall was recreated in the St. Fagens National History Museum near Cardiff.

Before ending our fascinating, history-filled tour of Beaumaris, we also visited the town's historic 14th-century parish church; the Bulkeley Arms Hotel, built for the future Queen of England when she visited Beaumaris as a 13-year-old Princess Victoria in 1832; and the adjacent Victorian waterfront terrane, modelled on a miniature Buckingham Palace inspired by the royal visit. After our tour of Beaumaris, we had time to visit some of the village's many shops, some of which are housed in medieval buildings, and to view a 15th-century Tudor-style terraced house.

Ireland

When we first visited Ireland, I had a hard time deciding which of the many special excursions to take after our ship, The Viking Saturn, arrived at a port outside Dublin. Although it was tempting to take the included city tour of Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature and famous as the birthplace of some of Ireland's best known writers, including Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, we opted instead for the 8-hour special excursion into the Irish countryside.

I often visit botanical gardens on my travels and I was fascinated by nearby County Wicklow, known as the “Garden of Ireland” as it is the county with the highest percentage of forest. In Wicklow we visited the private estate and gardens of Powerscourt, which has more than 700 different plant species and was once voted the third best garden in the world by the British government. National Geographic. It first opened to the public in 1974, but a month later a fire reduced the mansion to rubble. It would be more than two decades before it reopened. During our time at Powerscourt, we explored some of its 19 acres of formal gardens, including a walled garden, Italian and Japanese gardens, cascading terraces that took 12 years to complete, and part of its lush parkland. Powerscourt also has its own tower from which you can look out over trees planted over the past 200 years.

Before returning to the ship, we stopped for lunch at a local pub/restaurant and at Glendalough, an early medieval monastic settlement dating back to the 6th century.

Next week: Our cruise to the British Isles ends with a visit to England with stops in Liverpool, Dover and finally Greenwich in southeast London.

Kim Pemberton was invited by Viking Cruises, who did not review or approve this article. Follow her on Instagram at kimstravelogue.