The new visitor centre at the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, built into the Hillside in the same basalt stone that forms the Giant's Causeway, opens today (3 July).

The basalt is also used for paving and as retaining walls in the car park. None of the stone is square but is aligned to a diagonal crossing the site, which made the processing of what in any case is a difficult stone to work a challenge for S McConnell & Son, the stone specialists who shaped the stone and fixed it on site.

The project will be reviewed in the August issue of Natural Stone Specialist.