Rathlin Island

Today I joined a MeetUp group for a trip to Rathlin Island. I drove with three other women to Ballycastle, which looks like this in the morning:

And this:

In the distance is Fairhead, which will show up later in a photo from the southern tip of Rathlin Island.

We took a VERY rough ferry ride to the island then took Bert’s Puffin Bus to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds sanctuary. I don’t have much in the way of zoom powers but here’s what you see from the viewing platform:

You can’t really tell but these cliffs are covered in guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, and puffins. We were given binoculars, so we got a pretty good view of the action. I didn’t see many puffins but I didn’t care as I was quite taken with the razorbills and guillemots, many of them in pairs protecting their young.

I was so mesmerised by the birds that I forgot to take a photo of the lighthouse next to the viewing platform. It’s an upside down lighthouse (light at the bottom due to the height of the cliff) and it looks like this (internet photo).

Old boats near the harbour:

The view from the hostel:

We went for a five-mile walk that began along the coast:

Then we climbed to the top of the cliffs and walked along in some very stiff wind. I didn’t take too many photos because I was focusing on my balance. You can’t tell it, but I’m very high up here:

There were some lovely ruins on the island. Exterior:

And interior:

We found colonies of seals on two different beaches. These were on the southern tip of the island:

And these were near our hostel, not far from the harbour:

They are absolutely gigantic. And they just kind of lounge about, occasionally flapping their tails. I mentioned Fairhead earlier. Here’s the island view:

All in all, a good day.
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