Rathlin Island

Rathlin Island, in Irish Reachlainn, lies off Ballycastle in County Antrim and is the northernmost point of Northern Ireland and its only inhabited offshore island, home to 141 people at the 2021 census. Its cliffs hold one of the largest seabird colonies in Ireland, its West Light is famously built upside down, and its story takes in Robert the Bruce, two massacres and the first commercial radio link.

Landscape

The island is shaped like a reversed letter L, about six kilometres from east to west and four from north to south, rising to 134 metres at Slieveard. White chalk and dark basalt cliffs run around much of its coast, and the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland is just 29 kilometres away. The harbour and the island’s small village are at Church Bay, in the crook of the L.

History

Rathlin has been fought over for centuries. In tradition, Robert the Bruce sheltered on the island in 1306 after his defeats in Scotland, and in a cave here watched a spider try again and again to spin its web, inspiring him to fight on. In 1575 English forces under John Norris, with ships commanded by Francis Drake, massacred the MacDonnells’ people sheltering on the island, and there was another massacre in 1642. In 1898 Marconi’s company set up one of the world’s first commercial radio links between Rathlin and Ballycastle, to report passing ships for Lloyd’s.

Irish was spoken on Rathlin for most of the last 2,500 years, with a dialect close to Scottish Gaelic, and the last native speakers died in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1898 Marconi’s company set up one of the world’s first commercial radio links between Rathlin and Ballycastle, to report passing ships for Lloyd’s.

Visiting

Ferries run all year from Ballycastle to Church Bay, with a fast foot-passenger ferry and a slower vehicle ferry; cars are restricted, so most visitors come on foot or by bike. A minibus runs in summer to the RSPB West Light Seabird Centre, where the lighthouse has its light at the bottom and its entrance at the top. There is a pub, a café, a hostel and a few B&Bs. You can collect Rathlin Island as a landing in your Island Passport.

Wildlife and area

In summer the cliffs at the West Light are packed with guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars and puffins. Grey seals and harbour seals haul out around the harbour, choughs have returned to nest, and porpoises and minke whales are seen offshore. Nearby islands include Sheep Island (Northern Ireland).