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Staffa is said to be Old Norse, meaning
Pillar Island, due to its Basalt Columns.
The Island was formed when Glaciers from the
last Ice Age 20,000 years back began retreating
north, leaving the UK an Island, with thousands
of small Islands around the coast.
82 miles south of Staffa, the Giants
Causeway in Northern Ireland has the same
Basalt Columns, claimed to have been created at
the same time, although by a different
Volcano.
Legend states Staffa was created by a
Scottish Giant and the Giant's Causeway by an
Irish Giant, when they were building a road
between the two for a battle.
Fingals Cave is the top attraction on Staffa
at over 60ft high and 200ft long, claimed by
many visitors to be one of the top sights in
the world.
Fingals Cave is said to have been named
after a fictional Irish Warrior - Fionn
MacCumhaill / Finn McCool.
1772 - Staffa became a top tourist
attraction after the English botanist Joseph
Banks visited with the painter Johann
Zoffany.
Many famous people soon followed such as Sir
Walter Scott, John Keats, J. M. W. Turner,
William Wordsworth, Jules Verne, Alice Liddell
of Alice in Wonderland, David Livingston,
Robert Louis Stevenson, and Queen Victoria.
1829 - Felix Mendelssohn visited Staffa with
him creating The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)
- Overture in 1830.
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