This piece by Mendelssohn was inspired by one of his trips to the British Isles in 1829, and specifically to the Scottish island of Staffa, with its volcanic sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. It was reported that the composer immediately wrote this composition after seeing the island and thus created a "tone poem".
Through this music, Mendelssohn intends to create a mental scene of this wondrous island, by expressing its dramatic and mysterious features, which make you feel you are in another world. The island is well known for its outstanding and dramatic volcanic geology: many extraordinary caves and a unique vertical shape of basalt (dark fine-grained volcanic rock) columns. Staffa was named by the Vikings, who were astonished to see an island such as this. They believed that these columns could not have been formed by natural forces, and must have been the work of gods or giants.