The giant basalt columns which gave rise to the island’s Norse name Staffa – literally staff-ay or staff (pillar) island – are truly remarkable. Columnar basalt formations are not unusual, but the scale of those on Staffa is. The comparison with the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim was noticed many centuries, if not millennia, ago. However, although the volcanic activity that gave rise to these two famous localities is of a similar age, these are coincidental and not related features.
Staffa (and the outlying Treshnish Isles) are the remains of great volcanic lava flows, much of which have long since turned to rubble, sand and clays. Basalt is formed from lava, and the columns formed as a result of very slow cooling in thick lava flows. The thicker the lava, the longer it takes to cool, and the more likely it is that shrinkage will result in roughly hexagonal columns. Because they cooled at slightly different rates, the columns on Staffa vary in size and number of sides.
Fingal’s Cave is one of 19 sea caves around Staffa, formed as aeons of heavy ocean swells have found the crevices between the columns, loosening and then breaking off great pieces of basalt. The broken pieces are themselves picked up by heavy storm swells and literally hammer away at the sea cliffs. The process takes a long time, but then time is not in short supply here!
Fingal’s Cave (or An Uamh Binn/Musical Cave) has enthralled and inspired travellers for hundreds of years. Famous visitors include Queen Victoria, J M W Turner, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and of course Felix Mendellsohn, who composed his Hebrides Overture after hearing the acoustics in this cave.
