Wednesday 8th - Thursday 9th September 2010 Rathlin island

We took the high-speed passenger ferry from Ballycastle at 11 am. The sea was quite choppy but we had a good view of the coast, the island and the distant Mull of Kintyre.

As soon as the ferry landed we dropped our bags at the Manor House Guesthouse and cycled to the south end of the island passing farmland with cattle and and then moors with black-faced sheep, a buzzard and several rabbits. The moors are very colourful - purple heather grows side by side with yellow dwarf gorse. There are big lakes in the moor - we sat by one as we had our picnic lunch. On passing two ruined houses we came upon a large group of about 50 big black, grey and brown of seals lying lazily on the rocks, occasionally going in for a swim. Beyond the seals was the black and white south lighthouse.

In the afternoon we cycled over to the western end of the island on narrow, rather steep and sometimes rather bumpy roads sometimes lined with fuchsia and montbretia plants. We had views of Tor Head  - a big rectangular point on the mainland. The western lighthouse is at the bottom of a very high cliff, so you don’t actually see it, but there is a spectacular view of rock stacks in an inaccessible bay. The RSPB centre was officially closed; the warden advised us to come in spring or early summer when we would see puffins, guillemots and kittiwakes. She did however point out gannets - very large white birds with black wing tips. On the way back we heard spokes ‘pinging’ and found 5 broken! The island bike hire people advised us to go to a bike shop in Ballymoney as they would not be available the next day to lend us the necessary tools.

The picture below was taken from our dinner table in the lovely dining room at the Manor House, where our dinner was served to us by the very same person who had greeted us at the West Point bird sanctuary - island life is like that.