On Tuesday 18th November, CCGHT visited Bradley’s Quarry in Kilrea to select a piece of 60 million year old basalt for the new World Heritage Site Marker Stone at the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site.
Limavady Memorials will be working this piece of basalt, to include the UNESCO World Heritage Site Logo. The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1986. To mark this occasion a large inscribed boulder was placed at the original visitor centre and car park. To date the eastern boundary of the World Heritage Site at Hamilton’s Seat, has never been marked. With funding from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, CCGHT has worked with the National Trust and private landowners to mark this boundary with a brand new piece of basalt.
The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is a designated Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), and as such it is not possible to remove, move or disturb basalt from within the WHS for this purpose. Fortunately the basalts which are presented in exemplary form at the Giant’s Causeway, cover a huge area of Northern Ireland. Even today at 3,800 square kilometres, the basalt flows which formed the Causeway represent Europe’s most extensive lava field. We were therefore able to select a related piece of basalt from Bradley’s Quarry in Kilrea. This is also where the basalt facing for the new visitor centre was sourced, cut and polished.
We are hoping the new marker stone will be in place early in the new year; so next time you are walking the Causeway Coast Way, be sure to keep an eye out for your 60 million year old welcome to the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site
