Giants Causeway Visitors Centre

Creating the perfect entrance at Northern Ireland’s Iconic World Heritage Site.

The Giant’s Causeway lies at the foot of the basalt cliffs along the sea coast on the edge of the Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland. It has approximately 40,000 huge black basalt columns which date back to the volcanic age almost 60 million years ago. The visitors centre tells the story and provides a plethora of information for visitors from near and far.

Project Year: 2023

Product: Balance Doors

Project Background: We were approached by The National Trust to design a solution to combat operational issues with their existing sliding doors, caused by extremely high winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its geographical location and heavy footfall of visitors, it was imperative that we came up with a solution which was tailored specifically to the needs of the site.

Solution: After attending site to assess the existing doors in operation and subsequently reviewing several options, we proposed our Balance Door system which is designed to handle severe wind loads and intensive traffic flows.

Utilising our heavy duty SW200 operator, the balance door has incorporated the advantages of both conventional swing doors and normal sliding doors and is less vulnerable to severe wind loads, cross-draughts as well as pressure differences. The door is always perfectly balanced despite the lateral pressure. This ensures that it is easily opened, even during severe conditions. We installed 3 of our SW200 balance door systems in total, which integrate into the existing architecture and offer superior protection from the elements.