IT WAS a glorious morning at Causeway but something was afoot. Policemen peered from the peaks and perched on rocky protrusions.
There was a buzz among the scattering of early sightseers. The reason could be discerned out to sea, a few miles to the west, where the royal yacht was moored near The Skerries rocks just outside Portrush harbour.
The Prince among men was on his way to the seat of the Giant. Television cameras and equipment were hauled down the cliffside path to the edge of the strange basaltic formation - one of Ireland's greatest and best known curiosities, the guide books say.
The Rev Ian Paisley alighted from the little Causeway shuttle bus with his wife, Eileen. His neat gold lapel pin read "Jesus Lord" and he clutched a handsome black thorn walking stick.
He explained to Lord Rathcavan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, that he intended to present it to the Prince of Wales on behalf of the McConaghy family, who had been cutting and marketing such sticks for half a century.
Northern Economy Minister Baroness Denton joined the welcoming committee, which included local mayors and council chairmen. Mallard swam in the shiny sea. Everyone admired the dramatic cliffs and the irregular polygons of volcanic basalt - said to number some 40,000 in all.
Word came that the prince had landed in Portrush by barge, where he was met by a festive crowd of more than a thousand. He was driven to Dunseverick Castle and walked a mile or two of the Coastal Walk with environmentalists who explained the progress of work to protect the coastline from erosion.
The Causeway area is home to a breeding colony of rare choughs, in which the prince expressed a special interest. He was told that a new problem is the disturbance of this colony by sightseeing helicopters.
The royal motorcade arrived, to cheers at 11.30 a.m. A bunch of Honesty (Lunaria biennis) in the back window of Prince Charles's car indicated that he had been collecting souvenirs on his walk.
He alighted, with his escorting detectives scanning the people rather than the impressive landscape. He accepted the lacquered walking stick from Dr Paisley with interest and used it to good effect as he was shepherded down among the symmetrical rocks for a photo opportunity".
Prince Charles sat, pensive, for a few moments in the bench like rock structure known as the Wishing Chair - his guide said later: "He did make a wish, but I got the impression he wanted to keep it to himself."
Then he delighted cameramen by clambering to the top of an outcrop to pose against the backdrop of the sea us the Britannia and its escort destroyer steamed slowly past a few hundred yards offshore.
Back on the path, he shook hands with Australian tourists, John and Elaine Edwards, from Darwin, who had met him when he visited Alice Springs with his new wife, Diana, in long past, happier times. "Another adventure in Ireland," remarked a delighted Mrs Edwards.
Then it was off to Ballycastle to visit the hill farm of Mr Patrick Casement - a very distant relative one Roger, it appears - where the prince viewed mature woodland and a conservation area.
The royal visit in such splendid weather was seen as a tremendous publicity fillip to the tourism promotion of the Causeway - although, with visitors now topping 400,000 a year, any further growth will bring serious environmental problems as well as benefits.
"It gives us all a boost - the fact that he has come to one of the Seven Wonders of the World," commented Dr Paisley. A gang of excited schoolchildren rushed to sit in the Wishing Chair, recently vacated by the royal posterior.
The Giant's Causeway was designated a World Heritage Site in 1986 and is now cared for by the National Trust. Moyle District Council operates a tasteful and well equipped Visitors' Centre at a sensible remove from the remarkable natural phenomenon.
The Ward Lock guide book at the turn of the century remarked, "Cold types cannot visualise the Giant's Causeway". The veteran 19th century traveller and writer, W. M. Thackeray, is said to have exclaimed, at his first sight of it: "Good God! Have I come 150 miles to see this?".
However, its attraction is not just the Causeway itself, but the unique line of cliffs and natural amphitheatres surrounding it, making it "one of the strangest places on earth", in the words of an American visitor.
Prince Charles left no immortal comments to add to the Causeway's history. But by all accounts he was still using the blackthorn walking stick hours later.