Fingal’s Cave, Scotland

he hexagonal basalt columns of this sea cave on or “Cave of Melody.” Its beauty and acoustics have long inspired artists. Felix Mendels-sohn was so captivated, he composed his Heb-rides Overture. Sir Walter Scott described the site in his poem “The Lord of the Isles” as “that wond’rous dome, / Where, as to shame the temples deck’d / By skill of earthly architect, / Nature herself, it seem’d, would raise / A Minster to her Maker’s praise!”