Our Rathlin Island adventure!

Every year, during our summer holidays, I always aim to go somewhere new and exciting. As fate would have it, we were invited to have a night away at the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle. I hadn’t visited the seaside town of Ballycastle since I was a little girl, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce this gorgeous town to the kids.

As non-drivers, it can be a little daunting trying to get to these new & exciting places. However, thankfully, getting there via public transport wasn’t that difficult. It took two trains and one bus – the travel time adding up to around 1 hr 45 mins., which isn’t bad at all.

Once we arrived in Ballycastle, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed straight for Ballycastle Harbour. This is only a 5 walk from where the bus dropped us off.

The ferry over to Rathlin Island runs quite regularly and there are two ferries to choose from. The RE i.e. the fast Ferry takes 25 mins to cross 7 miles of the Moyle sea and the SOR i.e. Spirit of Rathlin takes 40 mins to make the crossing, but can also carry vehicles. 

We boarded the fast ferry and for 1 x adult and 3 x children, it cost £30 return. Once we left the Harbour of Ballycastle, we were so keen to see if we were lucky enough to spot some dolphins. Sadly, we weren’t but the views more than made up for the lack of ocean mammals.

Our first thoughts once we saw Rathlin was how beautiful it was. It is such a stunning place that I could rabbit on about it all day, but it without a doubt a place you need to see for yourself.

As we were walking around the island, to the kid’s excitement, they came across some kindness rocks. We absolutely love this activity and join in lots when we’re home. So the kid’s vowed to paint some for our next visit to Rathlin Island. 

We managed to find quite a few, all of which needed to remain on the island. So we found what we could and hid them again for others to find. 

There is Breakwater Art Studio on the island, which I understand arts & crafts can be paid for, for the children. We didn’t have time for this activity, but the next time we visit we will be checking it out, for sure. 

We took a short walk around to Mill Bay before hopping on the bus that meets each ferry as it docks to take people up to the RSPB Seabird centre & the West Lighthouse. Once you get up to the Seabird Centre, there is a fee to get through – it cost us just over £10 for 1 adult & 3 children.

The West lighthouse, which is the famous ‘upside down’ lighthouse on the island, was pretty cool. We’ve never seen anything like it before. The kids enjoyed exploring the lighthouse and learning all about lighthouse life before we walked down to check out the views of Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony.

Seabirds in their thousand nestle here and we were not only lucky enough to spot Kittiwakes, Razorbills and we were even especially lucky to catch a glimpse of the final two puffins to leave the island.

There were RSPB volunteers on hand to help the kids navigate the telescopes on the clifftop. The kids got to see three seals bottling in the water, which was quite special and we spent a lot of time observing the seabirds and watching the seals.

We also overheard the volunteers discussing the sighting of 6 Orcas off the coast of Ballintoy – which isn’t far from Rathlin Island. All very exciting and I’ll be honest, I had no idea our waters were so active with exotic marine life. 

If you look in-between the ‘V’ in the rocks, you can spot three dots. Those were the seals bottling happily in the water, enjoying the sunshine. 

Watching the kids be so interested and involved in seabirds and marine life was pretty awesome. Something we will come back to do again {and again} for sure.

We got the Puffin Bus back down on to the lower part of the Island, we did some more exploring. This time we walked around the towards the Eastern part of the Island. We came across a little beach, horses, beautiful houses and the cutest little post office.

There are also pony rides available, but sadly we couldn’t find where to book those, so that is something else we will do next time we visit. 

To my surprise, there were glamping pods on the island, with Rathlin Glamping Pods – queue the kids {and my} excitement! The glamping pods are £75 per night and each pod holds 4 people. 

Before we knew it, it was time for our ferry back over to Ballycastle. We honestly had the most amazing time on Rathlin Island. It is an absolutely breathtaking place and we cannot wait to go back and visit. There is so much of the island we still need to explore and we cannot wait to do it. 

Rathlin Island, you were an absolute beauty, a true hidden gem. We cannot wait to visit you again, next time we will bring our own kindness rocks to hide, too! 

Have you ever visited Rathlin Island?