1. Classic Photos, Modern Rock, An Enduring Legend
The rock formation known as the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim in Northern Ireland has been the subject of many renditions. Flickr Commons has historical images from the National Library of Ireland, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, and the Library of Congress.
This collection of over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.
The giant in the name was Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool). The story is that he picked a fight with the Scottish big man Benandonner.
The two large men giants loathed each other. After enduring countless insults from Benandonner, one day Fionn built a path for him to use as stepping stones to reach Scotland.
This path was then ripped up by Benandonner. The result was the Giant’s Causeway.
![[The Honeycombs, Giant's Causeway. County Antrim, Ireland] (LOC)](https://live.staticflickr.com/4006/4426682389_207b44e4c2.jpg)
What people might not know is that they were also the setting for the cover of the rock band Led Zeppelin’s 1973 album Houses of the Holy. The designer, a London firm called Hipgnosis took inspiration from Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End which, no spoilers, has a lot of children who get together at the end of the world.
We’ve also got stories about UFO Desks, epic kayaking, caravaning over Christmas, Washington DC oddities and history, decorated war pigeons, community-based photo id-ing, meeting some photographers, prisoners-turned-artists, tattooing in the 1930s, turkish street photography, aviatrices, books in motion, a cool bell, surprise celebrities, and, of course, cat pictures.
All part of Flickr Commons’ sixteenth birthday!
