A postcard published by W. Lawrence of Dublin featuring an early image of women on the Giant's Causeway. They look as if they are there to sell souvenirs.
The card was posted in Londonderry on Friday the 31st. August 1906 to:
Miss Bloodworth, 122, Cromwell Road, Peterborough
What Miss Bloodworth read over a century ago is as follows:
"Dear Flo, Spending day here and it is simply lovely. My cousin had an accident and was nearly washed over the edge. Wet through she is. Love 'til Monday, Dicky".
The Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.
It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a national nature reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.
In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.
The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Ownership of the Causeway
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is today owned and managed by the National Trust, and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.
The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown Estate and a number of private landowners.
Access to the Causeway
Access to the Giant’s Causeway is free of charge: it is not necessary to go via the visitors centre, which charges a fee.
Origin of the Columns
Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau.
As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillar-like structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits".
In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints.
The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today.
Raymond Sommer
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 31st. August 1906, Raymond Sommer was born. He was a French motor racing driver who raced both before and after WWII with some success, particularly in endurance racing.
He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in both 1932 and 1933. Sommer was also competitive at the highest level in Grand Prix motor racing, but did not win a race.
He won the French Grand Prix in 1936, but the event that year was run as a sports car race. After racing resumed in the late 1940's, Sommer again won a number of sports car and minor Grand Prix events, and finished in fourth place in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, the second round of the newly-instituted Formula One World Drivers' Championship.
Death of Raymond Sommer During a Race
Raymond was killed on the 10th. September 1950, when his car overturned during a race at the Circuit de Cadours. He was aged 44.
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