Fingal's Cave on Staffa

Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa - its basalt columns are spectacular. It is a relic of geologically ancient times when the American continent tore away from Europe, causing intensive volcanism along this side of what is now Scotland and Ulster. Visiting Staffa and Fingal's Cave had been my dream since my school years in Hungary, because I had read so much about it, and in literature lessons we had learnt about the 18th-century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson and his fake Ossian cycle - Fingal's Cave is named after the eponymous hero of an epic poem of his. When I was a kid, I read an English detective story, the scene of which was set on Staffa. I knew that composer Felix Mendelssohn visited the cave in 1829 and wrote the Fingal's Cave overture. Fingal's legend was also an inspiration. Many famous people visited this amazing place over the last centuries, e.g. Jules Verne, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, the painter Turner, who painted Fingal's Cave, and even Queen Victoria paid a visit. So, we included a trip with Thelma to Staffa - via Iona (which was also a great experience for both of us).