Rathlin Island

Ferry to Rathlin Island!

One of my favorite parts of studying abroad in Northern Ireland was the scenery. Though I got chances to take in the natural beauty all the time—sometimes simply by looking out my bedroom window—one of the best opportunities was on a day trip to Rathlin Island.

Rathlin Island is an island off of Northern Ireland’s North Antrim coast. Some of my flat-mates had gone on a trip there, and they had beautiful pictures. My two flat-mates from Hong Kong, Vicki and Tiffany, invited me to join them on their own trip to the island. To get there, we took a bus from our town, Coleraine, to the town of Ballycastle. Though I don’t think Coleraine and Ballycastle are all that far from each other, it was a lengthy bus ride. We had to hurry to find the ferry terminal in Ballycastle so we could make the ferry we wanted and have enough time to spend on the island. Riding that ferry reminded me of how much I don’t like boats! We spent about forty minutes on the ferry on the way there, and I felt fairly queasy. I’d taken some motion sickness medicine, though, which I’m sure helped me feel a lot better than I would have otherwise.

I was definitely relieved when we made it ashore! It was cold (most of my semester in Northern Ireland was), but a nice day at first, and the island looked gorgeous. We wandered over towards the tourist center and saw that it was closed for the season. That meant we were on our own to make the most of the day.

We ended up following the signs that pointed towards walking paths. One of us also had snagged a brochure that had a color-coded map of the walking trails. We ended up a bit confused along the way. The trail seemed to stop suddenly and didn't take us where the map said it would, and it took us much longer to reach the lighthouse we’d been heading towards than we had expected. The pathways were also much muddier than anticipated! My jeans and shoes were completely covered after the trip.

Even so, it was a great day of wandering through the island and marveling at nature. Included are a few of the photos from my trip. Hopefully you can see what I mean.

The highlight of the trip was definitely getting to see seals. Rathlin Island is known for its wildlife. It has a variety of wild birds, and if you come during the summer months, you can even see a puffin! Because it was the middle of autumn, though, we didn’t get a chance to see puffins. Seeing seals in the wild was more than enough for me. I hadn’t even been that interested in the seals, compared to my two flat-mates, but when we spotted them, I couldn’t stop myself from being thrilled. We stood by the rocks and watched them for a long time. I am pretty sure they were watching us too.

As we were returning the way we had come on the trail, a downpour started. We decided to cut our trip a bit short since we were getting soaked. Of course, as we made our way to the ferry, that was when the rain stopped. At least that gave us a chance to see a fantastic double rainbow.

Once the ferry dropped us off in Ballycastle, we had a little bit of time before the bus to Coleraine came. I remember being quite cold as we went into a small grocery store. I picked up a box of Ritz crackers to eat on the bus ride back to Coleraine. I was excited to get back to my flat, have dinner, get out of my muddy clothes, and be warm. As much as I was itching to get back to my flat, I was happy that I had made the trip to Rathlin Island. All we really did was walk around for a few hours, but in a place like that, walking around is more than enough.

I would love to be able to spend an extended period of time there, though. A Writer's Chair was erected on Rathlin Island to commemorate all the writers who have visited or spent time on the island. I can definitely see why it would attract writers. The views are inspiring, and it's definitely a get-away from everyday life. A week there to work on writing would be a fabulous retreat! Maybe I can make that a reality one day.