Rathlin Island

A rare place, wild, beautiful and of extraordinary ecological value and social interest.

This island lies 6 miles off Ballycastle in Northeast Ireland and 16 miles from the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. It is eight miles long and less than one mile wide.

Shaped like a boot made with layers of basalt on limestone on the higher parts. It is surrounded by limestone and basalt sea cliffs reaching 470 ft in places. Three lighthouses stand as monument to its wild coast while over 40 recorded shipwrecks lie in the depths of underwater cliffs, caves and a marine botanical paradise.

View from cliffs

The land, its history environment and community are inextricably interrelated and this has created a serve of place which can fire imagination and create that island magic and magnetism for which islands are famed.

Inhabited since Mesolithic times (6,000 BC) people have came and went leaving their mark in abundance of flint and porcellinite ancient axe and arrow heads (5000 - 2000 B.C.). Bronze age graves (2000 - 3000 B.C.), a magical iron age fort (500 B.C. - 800 AD) where a local chieftain fought foreign marauders to protect the islands Princess Taise (around 200 AD). There are standing stones, (timeless) ancient church sites (450 - 1200 A.D.). village graves (1100 A.D.), Robert the Bruce’s Castle (1306 A.D.) and cave, the Mc Donnells " Lord of the Isles " tower house remains (1500’s), famine dwelling remains, landlords manor house (1756) and churches (1720 and 1865).

Church Bay

Three massacres, the famine, the wild environment in wich people lived, worked and survived and the terrible beauties have created the island and its community today. Layers upon layers of stories over the generations interpret how the people lived, thought, laughed and cried. Today there are under 80 fulltime residents, before the famine there were 1,200, but the present community are resilient and proud of their home.

This is all there for people to learn about and experience - you’ll not do it in a day, you need to feel Rathlin. So don’t just come once, stay for a while, enjoy the peace and the beauty.......and the craic !!!