£18.5 million centre completed after two-year build

An £18.5 million visitor centre designed by Dublin-based architect Heneghan Peng has opened at the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland’s only Unesco World Heritage Site.

The centre took two years to complete and features 186 columns made from locally quarried stone, inspired by the site’s 40,000 hexagonal basalt stones.

Local grasses have been planted on the roof to integrate the centre into the landscape.

Heather Thompson, National Trust director for Northern Ireland, said: “It was extremely important for us to create visitor facilities worthy of this unique, legendary visitor attraction. 

“Currently 600,000 people visit the stones each year, and the new centre will enable us to increase capacity by 30%.”

The centre was built with money from the European Regional Development Fund, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Trust.

Heneghan Peng won the project following an open design competition in 2005 that received more than 200 entries.