Rathlin Island with Holly

Remember how we were so amazed at the weather we'd been experiencing? Well, Tuesday morning, we woke to pea soup fog everywhere - we could hardly see the cows in the field in front of the house. 

But, after a great breakfast by Nan, we drove down into Ballycastle, grabbed a baguette and cheese for lunch, and bought our ferry tickets for going to Rathlin Island (http://rathlincommunity.org/). We had a little time to spare, so we wandered the Seafront for a bit - such a cute town with a great Seafront! 

A lot of towns have exercise equipment in the parks for people to use - funny!

We boarded the ferry and went the 25 min across the totally fogged-in sea to the Island. On the way, we saw many more Guillots as well as a Ganet. Upon arrival, we wandered up to the St Thomas' Church past 3 sunbathing seals (huge ones). 

We asked a local which hikes they would recommend since the Seabird Centre was closed, including the platform and steps to see the puffins (so sad!). We were told to go to the old coastguard lookout and East Lighthouse, so off we went, travelling the road less traveled. And, I mean the road barely traveled! We saw not 1 soul on the loop to the coastguard lookout (Ballyconaghan trail - Trail Map and Info). It was a beautiful hike through field, heath, and along cliffs. It was tough going, not because of a lot of elevation changes, but you had to watch where you were stepping all of the time for fear of turning an ankle (very uneven ground) as well as look out for sign posts because the trail was not traveled often so has barely visible in places. The fog/mist was so neat- it kept coming and going, so that at times we could see amazing views (more seals, lots of pretty wildflowers, lots of little wetlands and ponds, lots of cattle and some very cute ponies) and other times could see hardly anything at all. And, we kept having to take our outer layer on and off because when the fog lifted it was really hot, but as soon as it came back it was cold! Very neat. 

After that hike, we walked on the road out to East Lighthouse on the Mullindress and Ballycarry trails where we sat and had our picnic lunch. On that hike, we saw 5 people (4 of whom were on bikes) and 1 car. Then, we continued on the roads back toward and past the harbor in the Ballynoe trail to Mill Bay where we say a huge seal colony (~20 of them!) as well as two nesting lapwings. Back along the shore, we stopped at the pub for a pint before returning to the mainland via the Rathlin Express. 

We then walked back into town...views from the hills heading back down into the harbor:

And then on out the road to the seal colony area:

View from the ferry headed back to Ballycastle:

What a day! Even with the fog and not being able to get to the cliffs where the puffins nest, we loved our time on the Island. All told, I think we probably hiked 8-10 miles and saw some really remote nature. Back in Ballycastle, after speeding through the fog, we wandered the Town Centre a bit and then returned to Central Wine Bar for an early supper watching the World Cup - we went with non-Irish fare this night, so it wasn't as good as the previous night's food, but the sticky toffee pudding was top notch!  Back at the B&B, Holly was asleep before 830pm, and I took advantage of the quiet to write this blog post.How fun!

The next day, before heading back to Belfast to the airport for Holly to fly out, we took the Bushmills distillery tour - fun. Great top off for our time together. Very glad Holly came to visit.