A visitor stands at the Giant's Causeway, County Antrim. A new £18.5m visitors' centre opened last week. (Pic: Paul Faith/PA)

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but the National Trust must really be starting to wonder at this stage.

It’s only a few weeks since it was mauled by an outraged Ian Paisley Jnr over its opposition to a golf resort near the Giant’s Causeway.

But now the Trust faces accusations that it has been the one to have spoiled the Unesco World Heritage site, by including creationism at the causeway’s new ultra-modern visitors centre.

The Trust insists it has merely reflected part of the causeway’s “story” – that scientists and biblical scholars who fought over the origins of the planet, had historically used the causeway as a theoretical battleground.

The centre’s interactive exhibition tells visitors “some people around the world, and specifically here in Northern Ireland”, believe the Bible’s Book of Genesis shows the earth is only 6,000 years old.

The script also tells visitors – much to the anger of critics – that when it comes to the age of the planet, the “debate continues today for some people”.

The Evangelical Caleb foundation said it “worked closely with the National Trust over many months”, and said the initiative “both respects and acknowledges an alternative viewpoint” on the origins of the planet.

It was a measure of how much trouble the Trust was in, that it had to reassure the public it had not been converted.

It issued a statement confirming it “fully supports the scientific explanation for the creation of the stones 60 million years ago”.

Sir David Attenborough, our blue planet’s most celebrated tour guide, has opposed creationism being given a place alongside science.

He once said: “It’s like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five.”

A spokesman for the National Trust told said the organisation has no plans to include creationism at any of its sites in Britain.

It seems happy for the debate to go on – as long as it stays on this side of the Irish sea.