When the news of the "discovery" of an amazing natural phenomenon broke on an unsuspecting world in 1693 it was by the presentation of a paper to the Royal Society from Sir Richard Bulkeley, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. The "discoverer" had, in fact, been the then Bishop of Derry a year earlier. The news caused quite a stir in 'the polite society' of the time and in 1697 a draughtsman was sent to make drawings of the Natural Curiosity on the North East tip of the island of Ireland.
What seems remarkable to us now, in the 21st century, is that there was much argument as to whether the Causeway had been created by men with picks and chisels, by nature, or by the efforts of a giant. For in the 17th century nothing like it had been seen before. As an artist, Miss Susanna Drury spent, in 1740, quite some period of months on site. Depicting the magnificence that she found, ensured that the Causeway became noted on The Grand Tour. And it was not until 1771 that a Frenchman, Demarest, announced the origin of the causeway to be the result of volcanic action.