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Giant's Causeway gets £3m grant | Giant's Causeway gets £3m grant |
(about 1 hour later) | |
The new Giant's Causeway visitors' centre is to finally go ahead following a £3m lottery grant. | The new Giant's Causeway visitors' centre is to finally go ahead following a £3m lottery grant. |
After years of delays and wrangling, construction is due to start at the site - one of Northern Ireland's most popular tourist attractions. | |
The Heritage Lottery Fund money will go towards an £18.5m revamp of facilities, including a new visitors' centre. | |
The National Trust, which oversees the site. also plans to improve paths and protect the 3km stretch of coastline. | |
The Trust's Northern Ireland director Hilary McGrady said it was a "landmark announcement" and the grant would ensure the causeway would "truly be sustained, transformed and forever treasured". | |
Legend has it the Irish giant Finn McCool built the causeway - now a World Heritage Site - to cross the sea and fight a Scottish rival. | |
As well as a new centre, the plans for the north Antrim coastal site also include: | As well as a new centre, the plans for the north Antrim coastal site also include: |
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As well as the £3m lottery grant, extra funding is currently being discussed with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. | |
The Trust has donated £4m toward the project and has also set a fundraising target of £2.25m from the Trust's "A Giant Cause" charity campaign. | |
The visitors' centre, due to be completed in 2012, was designed by Dublin architects Heneghan Peng, and will be hidden from the coastal landscape by a grass roof. | |
An artist's impression of how the visitor centre may look | An artist's impression of how the visitor centre may look |
It will have environmental features such as water-permeable paving, natural lighting and rainwater harvesting. | |
The decision to go ahead with the centre follows years of controversy after the original visitors' centre burned down in 2000. | |
In 2007, NI's then Environment Minister, Arlene Foster of the DUP, announced she was minded to let property developer Seymour Sweeney's company Seaport Investments Ltd build the centre. | |
But hat decision was reversed months later. | |
In January 2009, Mrs Foster's ministerial successor Sammy Wilson gave approval to the National Trust's £18.5m plan for new facilities. | In January 2009, Mrs Foster's ministerial successor Sammy Wilson gave approval to the National Trust's £18.5m plan for new facilities. |
In May 2009, Mr Sweeney dropped a legal challenge to the government's handling of rival bids to build the centre, which cleared the way for work to begin on the National Trust's plans. | In May 2009, Mr Sweeney dropped a legal challenge to the government's handling of rival bids to build the centre, which cleared the way for work to begin on the National Trust's plans. |
The Giant's Causeway's unique rock formations of rugged symmetrical columns have, for millions of years, stood as a natural rampart against the ferocity of Atlantic storms. | The Giant's Causeway's unique rock formations of rugged symmetrical columns have, for millions of years, stood as a natural rampart against the ferocity of Atlantic storms. |
The 'discovery' of the causeway was announced in a paper to the Royal Society in 1693. | The 'discovery' of the causeway was announced in a paper to the Royal Society in 1693. |
At that time, there was furious debate over whether the causeway had been created by men with picks and chisels, by nature, or by the efforts of a legendary giant. | |
Scientists now agree the naturally-formed patterns of rock were formed 65 million years ago by volcanic activity. |