So where were we...oh yes, Rathlin, or Raghery if you prefer. Seems like an age ago now. Luckily I don't have too many of my wonderful B&W creations to show you - mostly 'cos they were pretty dull affairs. Rathlin, in case you haven't been paying attention, is a wee island off the north coast of Northern Ireland and lies between us and Bonnie Scotland. It's where Robert the Bruce lived in a cave for a year and saw his famous spider, before he returned to Scotland to become King, or something like that. It's also where Richard Branson crash-landed his big balloon thingmy that he flew in across the Atlantic. In gratitude he donated a few coins for an activity centre on the island which now bears his name - the centre, that is, not the island.
And it also has a place in world history, for it is here that a certain Guglielmo Marconi made the first wireless transmission - between Ballycastle on the mainland and the island. Well, although Marconi was The Man, apart from an initial survey he left the actual experiment to his right-hand-man and his colleague. And history, as they say, was made.
So...what to tell. Well, the RSPB bird sanctuary is a place of wonder, where thousands of seabirds come to nest each summer - puffins, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes, shags and gannets to name but a few. Here's the sort of thing you can expect to see from a wee boat:
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| Birds |
All those wee dots are in fact birds. You'd have to be quite sociable to be a sea-bird on Rathlin in July. Quite a noise they make too.
I apologise for the rather blurry snap here - but hey, you try standing on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic trying to get a shot off with a 20-year old film camera. It ain't easy. Plus I only had 100ASA film loaded, so me shutter speeds were too low. Ah well, you get the gist...
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