Rathlin Island - Rathlin Island - TravBuddy

The island is free to all visitors... but of course the ferry ticket has to be bought (unless you are taking part in the Great Rathlin Swim!)
Rathlin Island is the only Island in the north of Ireland. It has a first-class harbour recently finished and many ferry sailing a day from Ballycastle, but like all off-shore life – it is dictated by the temperament of the sea!
Bird life
The cliffs are home to tens of thousands of seabirds whose incessant murmuring sounds like the inside of a beehive. The best place to see them is at the Kebble Nature Reserve at the west end of the island. Sheer volcanic rock-stacks are crowded with razorbills, guillemots, manx shearwaters, fulmars, kittiwakes and puffins. The best time to see the birds is early summer when they come ashore to breed. By the end of August, most of the young have fledged and the birds return to the open sea. Fulmars are the only ones to stay all year round. Buzzards nest on Rathlin and there are many waders on the small reed-fringed lakes. you may even see a kestrel or peregrine falcon hovering overhead. Curlews and snips nest in the marshy bordering some of the meadows.
Rathlin Island is a 45 minute boat trip (depending on the wind!) across the sound from Ballycastle and only a dozen or so miles from the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. Shaped like a letter L with one arm about 4 miles long and the other about 2 and a half, the island has three lighthouses and high white cliffs round most of the coast. The tip of the shorter arm is 3 miles from Fair Head, a nearly right angled headland that marks off Ulster's north east cormer.