PAUL McCartney and Wings sang about the Mull of Kintyre and increased the tourism level there by more than 50%.
Mull is a southwest Scotland word for a headland in geographic terms, or a hilltop or the tip of a peninsula. The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre peninsula. It is situated some eight miles from Southend, a village with a population of 497 (2001 census), with just a single track road joining the two. If you look out from the mull, you will clearly see the Antrim coast, and in between is RathlinIsland; while further still, on a clear day, Malin Head comes into view.
Rathlin is 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) from the mull. It is the northernmost point of, and the only inhabited island off, the coast of Northern Ireland. There is a ferry service to the island from Ballycastle in CountyAntrim, which is six miles away, into ChurchBay. Two ferries operate the service run by Rathlin Island Ferry Company Ltd. One is a fast foot-passenger-only catamaran named Rathlin Express; the other is the MV Canna, which takes a limited number of vehicles with passengers and is owned by the Scottish government. There are between seven and ten return trips a day from March to September. The return fare is £12 for an adult and £6 for a child.
Ballycastle’s population is 5,089. It is set in the glens of Antrim and is the most northerly town in Northern Ireland. It is also part of the North Antrim constituency of Ian Paisley Jnr and home to the famous Auld Lammas Fair, held each year on the last Monday and Tuesday of August in the town. Fair Head is the most famous landmark, rising to a height of 196 metres (643 feet).
There lies the basic geography of the surrounds of Rathlin, so let us look at the island itself. It is part of Moyle District Council, which also includes Ballycastle and Bushmills, home of the world-famous whiskey. The island is a reversed L-shape and measures six kilometres east to west and four kilometres north to south. Slieveard is the highest point, with an elevation of 134 metres above sea level. The population is 78 and rising. In 1831, it was 1,039.
Rathlin came to pass as a result of volcanic movement in prehistoric times. It has a large protected seabird colony, which attracts large numbers of bird watchers each year. The terrain is pretty bare, with the 70-metre cliffs home to a large number of caves, of which Bruce’s cave is the most famous. We will be returning to this as we progress.
Almost 40 shipwrecks litter the area, the most famous being the cruiser HMS Drake, which was torpedoed by U-79 in Rathlin Sound on 2 October 1917 before sinking in Church Bay with the loss of 19 of her 900 crew. The SS Lugano, with no loss of life, and HMS Brisk, which lost 31 crew members, were also sunk in this action.
Although small in population, the island still has all the facilities to make tourists comfortable and welcome – just don’t expect a hectic nightlife. There are two well-maintained public toilets, a post office doubling as a gift shop, where you withdraw money if needed and which is open from 11am to 3pm, April to September. There is a fresh seafood shop, a grocer’s, a chip shop, a café and a restaurant. An ATM is located in the local pub, which is open from 5pm each evening and at noon on weekends. There is a large kids’ playground, a Catholic church, with Mass each Sunday at noon, while the Church of Ireland service in its church is at 11.30am on the same day.
It also has its own hare. This is the Rathlin Golden Hare, which is of a lighter colour than the native Irish breed and has blue eyes. This is as a result of a rare genetic mutation and this animal is hard enough to find.
There are a number of B&Bs and self-catering establishments for those wishing to spend time on Rathlin, perhaps to explore the caves or visit the bird sanctuary. Although remote and hard to reach, Rathlin has a colourful and violent history, so we are going to select some of the events that created that history.
When the island became inhabited is not certain. It is possible it was around 7000BC. What is certain is that in 2500BC there was a thriving export business going on. This was of porcellanite axes, which were considered the strongest type of axe at the time. There are only two recorded quarry sites in the world where this material was available: one was (and still is) Tievebulliagh in The Moyle area of Antrim, and the second was on RathlinIsland (possibly Shandragh was the place of manufacture). This industry was rendered obsolete by the Bronze Age.
Rathlin was the scene of the first Viking raid on Ireland in 795AD. This was a violent affair, with many inhabitants massacred. There is evidence of a Viking presence up to the ninth century. A white stone overlooking ChurchBay marks the site of a Viking graveyard which, when excavated in 1784, revealed a large number of occupied graves. The Rathlin Brooch, made from silver, and now on display in the NationalMuseum, Dublin, was found in the grave marked by the aforementioned stone.
The ruins of a medieval castle on a cliff-top headland near the east lighthouse although called Bruce’s Castle is believed to have been built by the Anglo-Norman John de Courcy at the end of the 13th century. The reason it carries the name Bruce’s Castle is as a result of Scotland’s King Robert the Bruce fleeing to this location in 1303 following his second defeat by King Edward I. Supposedly hiding in what is now known as Bruce’s Cave, which lies at the foot of the cliff beneath the east lighthouse – which could only be reached from the sea and could not be seen from the top of the cliff – Bruce watched the perseverance of a spider as it wove its web. This inspired Bruce to return to Scotland, where he defeated the English army of King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June 1314 and became King of Scotland again.
There is no conclusive evidence that Bruce spent any time hiding in a cave or of the spider legend, but there is no doubt that Bruce spent time in the castle, and as the cave associated with the story is close to and under the castle, this may have given life to the story.
Speaking of the east lighthouse, it is located on Altacarry Head and is the oldest of the three that stand on Rathlin and has been working since 1856. When the west lighthouse was under construction at Keeble Point between 1912 and 1917, the light was too high to be of any benefit, and in an amazing feat of engineering the light was reset on the cliff below the lighthouse at a cost £400,000 (in today’s terms, that would be in the region of £15 million). The Rue lighthouse on the southern side of the island has been operational since 1921 and is fully automated.
Although Bruce’s Cave is the most famous yet least visited because of its location, there are many others to be explored, and I want now to introduce you to the Rathlin Ghost and how three fishermen made its acquaintance.
The story goes that they were fishing off the shore of Cooraghy on the western side of the island. As daylight faded, they decided to shelter overnight in a nearby cave. A large flat-top boulder made an ideal table, so they set out their mugs there.
As the tea was poured, a hand shot out of the darkness and placed a fourth mug on the giant boulder. The fishermen only saw the hand; they did not turn to greet its owner, but poured the fourth mug. The hand reappeared to take the tea and pulled it back into the cave. The story goes that the hand belonged to the devil himself. No-one has stayed in that cave ever since. And if people happened upon it by accident, they left rapidly.
The Viking annihilation of population in 795 was not the only massacre on Rathlin. Worse would be recorded in 1575 when English troops, under the command of Colonel John Norreys, were sent from Carrickfergus to clear the island of the Scotch garrison based there. This was by order of Lord Essex, who had been sent to Ireland to destroy and kill Sorley Boy MacDonnell, who was the Irish chief of the McDonnells. Sorley Boy and his men had resisted all attempts by the crown forces and also those of Shane O’Neill to expel them.
Knowing what was ahead, Sorley Boy ordered all wives, children, parents, sick and the elderly to be taken to Rathlin for safety. Many would enter the castle under what they felt was the protection of the garrison, while the majority would hide in the endless sequence of caves that lay at the base of the cliffs. By coincidence, as Sorley Boy’s boats were returning from Rathlin, they met the boats of Sir Francis Drake moving towards the island (an act for which Drake has never been forgiven) with Norrey’s men on board. Their landing was difficult enough because a westerly wind made it practically impossible to set foot on the island, but the soldiers’ determination overcame this hazard.
This would turn out to be Rathlin’s darkest hour. The invaders stormed the castle on 25 July and soon overcame the garrison, who surrendered after their captain was killed. Next morning, the constable, his family and one hostage were allowed leave, while the garrison, their comrades and the rest of the hostages – 200 in all – were put to the sword. When this atrocity was carried out, the caves were searched. More than 400 men women and children were found, and they too were killed, thus wiping out the whole island.
Remember, at the start we mentioned Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre? Well, Rathlin has its own song, too, simply called Rathlin Island, written by Brian Conners. Unfortunately, there was no singer as prominent as McCartney to record this quiet, beautiful song, but Paul Lavery does a fantastic version. This is not available on YouTube, but Barnbrack and Eileen King’s versions are.
