Giant's Causeway Exhibit Amended

A controversial exhibit at the Giant’s Causeway has been amended by the National Trust.

The controversy began early on in the summer, when an exhibition at the Causeway’s new visitors centre offered the creationist view regarding the formation of the famous geological structure.

An online campaign was quickly set up, calling for the removal of the creationist view from the exhibition.

Creationists believe the Causeway, and indeed the world, was formed 6,000 years ago. The vast majority of scientists believe the Causeway was formed 60m years ago.

At the time, TV scientists Professor Brian Cox tweeted that it was nonsense "to suggest there is any debate that Earth is 4.54 billion years old."

The exhibit took the form of an audio tour, informing people of the creationist view.

Northern Ireland evangelical group, the Caleb Foundation, welcomed the inclusion of the exhibit during the summer.

In a statement at the time, Foundation chairman Wallace Thompson said: "We have worked closely with the National Trust over many months with a view to ensuring that the new Causeway visitor centre includes an acknowledgement both of the legitimacy of the creationist position on the origins of the unique Causeway stones and of the ongoing debate around this."

But now the exhibit has been amended. The National Trust made clear it has always supported the scientific view and had only included the creationist section of the exhibit to illustrate the various arguments in the ongoing debate surrounding the Giants Causeway.

The Causeway is a Unesco World Heritage Site and features more than 40,000 interlocking basalt columns.

The £18.5m centre was opened by Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson on 3 July.

(IT/GK)