Science is Fun Fridays!
It used to be part of a cliff wall but weather and waves weakened the land over time, and erosion won out.
The surrounding cliffs are around 350 million years old, when sea temperatures were higher and the coastline a greater distance away.
Maria McNamara, a paleobiologist at the University of Cork, suggests we're looking at "tens to hundreds of thousands of years" of geological processes in the rock.
She notes an area of onlapping strata, or layers, which suggests a rise in sea level long ago.
"As the land surface was flooded, sediments were laid down progressively inland."
Deeper water led to more fine-grained shales being deposited, while shallower waters see more sandy limestone. The upper portions are thicker limestone beds, indicating that the sea level shallowed as the the higher rocks were forming.
It is believed that an arch used to connect the stack to Downpatrick Head, and this collapsed in 1393 following a severe storm. This may explain its name, which translates to "Broken Fort."
The site hasn't been checked for fossils, and if there are any, they're likely from the Carboniferous period, and would include corals, brachiopods, and crinoids.
A team did helicopter over in the 1980's and reportedly found the remnants of a medieval house and a broken grinding stone.
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