Fingal's Cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow[2] and is similar in structure to both the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and Ulva.

[3] 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.

[6][7] Other famous 19th-century visitors included author Jules Verne, who used it in his book Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray), and mentions it in the novels Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mysterious Island.

Poets William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson[1] and Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner, who painted Staffa, Fingal's Cave in 1832 also made the trip.

"[12] Artist Matthew Barney used the cave along with the Giant's Causeway for the opening and closing scenes of his art film, Cremaster 3.

In 2008, the video artist Richard Ashrowan spent several days recording the interior of Fingal's Cave for an exhibition at the Foksal Gallery in Poland.