Rathlin Island
Every visitor to our N.E. coast has stood at one time or another and gazed at the storied island of Rathlin or Raghery as the Islanders call it. Its much easier to get to it these days, 6 miles and a 50 minute boat ride from Ballycastle. Boats leave daily in the summer time. From the earliest times, the history of Rathlin is one of continual bloodshed. Throughout the ages, these peaceful contented people seem to have been picked out for the foulest persecution. Even the warlike Danes chose this island as the starting point for their bloody invasion. The winds have long since blown the cobwebs from the island’s cave wherein King Robert the Bruce sought temporary sanctuary. Here he was enthralled by an industrious spider whose zeal he emulated to rebuild his shattered fortunes and reclaim his Scottish throne. Today the island seems a peaceful spot. It has no rates, no doctor, only one bit of a road but no road tax to pay, no electricity and no policemen but they do have a pub, the most Northernly and remotest pub in the North. For two centuries McCuaig’s unique pub has been an integral part of the islanders life and the magnet for visitors. In fact this is the second pub. The new one was built by Aidan McCuaig just 500 metres from the old one. Although it’s still owned by Aidan and his mother it’s leased out to another islander Peter McCurdy. It’s a very plain pub, L shaped like the island.
On display are the nameplates and relics of ships sunk around the island. This small island takes the brunt of the fury of the Atlantic storms as they roar through ‘Rathlin Sound’. This narrow gateway is also called ‘The Moyle’: The poem goes ‘Sadly o Moyle be the roar of thy waters’. These strong tides around the island have always posed a great threat to ships from the earliest times. I noticed THE GIRVAN OF AYR nameplate. This was a barque of 694 tons which set out for Adelaide from Glasgow in July 1884. She got as far as the Mull of Kintyre 12 miles away but on a calm summer’s day the relentless tides rather than the roar of the winds forced her on to the western rocks of the island.
Everybody on board and most of her cargo was saved including a large consignment of whiskey that still lies buried in forgotten hiding places. A touch of ‘Whiskey Galore’ about this one.
Other ships remembered here are ‘Her Majesty’ a paddle Steamer that sank in 1875, ‘The Saracen’, ‘The Trawler’,’Erlo Hills’ and ‘ the Loughgarry’, a Government transport ship that sank in heinous weather on January 1942. 23 men lost their lives when their lifeboat sank off the rocks in nearby Doon Bay.
In pride of place in the bar are the lovely brass port holes belonging to the most famous wreck of Rathlin and the largest wreck off the Northern coast, THE DRAKE, a four funnelled armoured cruiser of 14,000 tons. She spent the entire 1st World War on the Atlantic run. At the time she was torpedoed by German U Boats she was protecting an American bound convoy. After being hit on October 2nd 1917, the captain of the stricken ship decided to head for Rathlin. He made it alright and just as he was preparing to beach her, she began to list alarmingly and in no time sank but not before her full compliment of officers and men got safely to shore. Her great hulk still lies there in fairly shallow water. The wreck is a hazard for shipping and home for giant conger eels and visited frequently by various sub aqua clubs.
The new bar is capable of holding 150 persons. Considering the population of the island is steady around 100 (a century ago it was over 1,000), it will be filled only in July when relatives and friends flock back to their island home. Normally during the long winter months it only opens from 9 each evening to closing time. (It wouldn’t do to probe too deeply into what is meant by that.)
Lonely Rathlin has an aloofness that is undoubtedly charming in these days of hassle and stress. It seems to belong to a world all its own, neither of Ireland nor of Scotland.