<Tr> <Th> Access </Th> <Td> Public </Td> </Tr> <P> Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, known for its natural acoustics . The National Trust for Scotland owns the cave as part of a National Nature Reserve . It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th - century Scots poet - historian James Macpherson . </P> <P> Fingal's Cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow, similar in structure to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and those of nearby Ulva . </P> <P> In all these cases, cooling on the upper and lower surfaces of the solidified lava resulted in contraction and fracturing, starting in a blocky tetragonal pattern and transitioning to a regular hexagonal fracture pattern with fractures perpendicular to the cooling surfaces . As cooling continued these cracks gradually extended toward the centre of the flow, forming the long hexagonal columns we see in the wave - eroded cross-section today . Similar hexagonal fracture patterns are found in desiccation cracks in mud where contraction is due to loss of water instead of cooling . </P>

Island of the inner hebrides west of mull site of fingals cave