Built with sustainability at the forefront of design

Who designed the Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre?

The Visitor Centre at the Giant's Causeway, which was designed by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects. Opened in July 2012, it was designed to blend with the landscape while also reflecting the towering basalt columns of the volcanically formed Giant's Causeway. The building has been ingeniously engineered with sustainability at the forefront of the design.

Did you know?

Almost 5km (3 miles) of pipe runs underneath the car park to provide the centre with ground source heat

1km (0.6 miles) of pipes, as wide as a meter in places are buried underground, drawing in air to cool the centre.

Water is collected from the green roof in an underground tank which is used for the toilets within the centre.

How was the Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre constructed?

The materials used to build the enormous construction were sourced from a mix of local and recycled materials. The striking stone columns of the building were built using Kilrea basalt which was formed from the same lava flow that created the Causeway itself. Even more astonishingly, the entire build only took 18 months to erect and has been designed to last at least 100 years.

Learn more

Narrated by the local actor and Game of Thrones star, Conleth Hill, hear all about the building by listening to an audio guide on a visit. Visits can be booked online from the What's On section of the Giant's Causeway website. 

Take a behind-the-scenes virtual tour to see some of the sustainable features of this award-winning building.