Rathlin O'Beirne - a few photographs

 

All photos except the bottom one taken from Malin Beg

The last time I was in South west Donegal was a flying visit to photograph 1) the lighthouse at Rathlin O'Beirne 2) the keepers cottages at Glencolmcille 3) Rotten Island lighthouse and 4) St. John's Point lighthouse, as well as trying to find evidence of a short-lived lighthouse at Bruckless.

Naturally enough, the day I chose for my blitzkrieg was overcast and cloudy and the photos I had travelled so far to get were kind of disappointing, particularly those of Rathlin O'Beirne, half-shrouded in a murky mist.

So, this time, we are actually staying in between Carrick and Kilcar and so, visiting the incredible beach at Malin Beg and the even more incredible cliffs at Sliabh Liag, I was able to get a few snaps of RoB, with a blue sky background.

On the Mullet peninsula in county Mayo, the keepers used the Napoleonic signal tower at Glosh to semaphore Blackrock lighthouse. I wonder if they did the same here?

The lady in the Glencolmcille Folk Park told me that a good photo exists of the three Jones lads rowing out to the island, one of them with a cigarette in his mouth. The contract for the lighthouse supplies was owned by the Jones family from the 1800s right up to the introduction of the helicopter service in the 1960s and one of the family continued as attendant after automation

This one was taken from much further away (the Sliabh Liag viewing platform) hence the haziness