Today's visitor is free to wander over the stones at will but this was not always the case. Growing worldwide fame brought increasing numbers of visitors which motivated a syndicate of businessmen and landowners to introduce a very profitable charge scheme to view the stones.

For over a century prior to this there had been disputes of access and ownership, in their time the stones have been fenced off, access denied and several legal challenges made.

In 1897 however, one lengthy legal battle between the syndicate known as the the Giants Causeway Company and local people went to the High Court of London. The court ruled that the road to the stones had existed for public access to the foreshore, proof came in the form of contractual documentation between Antrim Borough Council and a contractor for the upkeep of the stretch of the road between Dervock and the Causeway Stones. The court ruled that this was a ligitimate public road but they did not recognise free access over the stones.

The Giant's Causeway Company subsequently improved the site, fenced off the stones and levied a charge of 6d to view them. It is with thanks to a small band of local people who stood up for an ancient 'right of way' that free access is enjoyed  today.

A  house once stood at the point where the shuttle bus now turns round, a caretaker lived here who monitored the stones and turnstile. On the right as you pass through the Giants Gate was a Victorian tea room - both have long since gone though postcards remain.

There is also nothing left of a two hundred year old tradition where stalls belonging to local people lined the pathway that sweeps round Port Ganny and leads to the causeway. Local guides would show people around the area and boatmen would row visitors to see Portcoon Cave or view the spectacular Amphitheatre.

Although we walk down today and see no-one working the shoreline, in the past these bays would have supported dozens of local familes and a common site would have been people working the kelp or local men manning one of several fishing boats that were kept in Portnaboe at the Brenther port.