Inishtrahull at last!

Due to a very fortuitous and unexpected set of circumstances, I was able to drive up to Inishowen from Dublin last Sunday on empty roads and finally get a boat to the island of Inishtrahull. It had been one of the lighthouses that had eluded me for many years and the fantastic weather only made it all the more memorable. As well, of course, the opportunity of a rare meeting up with ALK Ireland rep Rosie Drysdale and Billy.

Solar panels now light the new lighthouse

Inishtrahull lies six, seven or eight miles north of Malin Head (depending on your source) making it the most northerly part of Ireland, not counting the Torr Rocks that bear their jagged rocks about a half a mile to the north. There are currently three boats that do trips out there in the summer months - Inishowen Boating, True North Boating and Amazing Grace Yacht Charters. Inishowen Boating is the original boat; True North is new and a rib; and Amazing Grace is a yacht. The first two do the boat trip to the island (30 to 40 minutes each way) and 2 to 2.5 hours free roaming on the island for €50. Atlantic Yachts is more expensive but do full-day trips to the island with lunch. All leave from Bunagee Pier near Culdaff and none have regular sailing times; its very much weather dependent and also tide dependent (or so I was told). I went with True North.

The Torr Rocks, Ireland's northernmost land (excluding Rockall - winky emoji)

The only real landing place is at Portmore which is on the far, northern side of the island. The island is roughly one kilometer long relatively low, except for two large hills at either end, each of which sports a lighthouse. In between is short-grassed pastureland - though agriculture was not a big thing with the islanders - containing the ruins of the houses still standing after the final evacuation in the late 1920s. 

There are many little bays and crags and pools around the whole island, each of which has a name. Sean Beattie wrote a great handy-sized book called the Book of Inishtrahull, which I would heartily recommend bringing along if you visit. It names the occupants of all the houses and gives some great history and anecdotes of life on the island. 

I decided to visit the old lighthouse first, which was typical, as Rosie and Billy, on the other boat, who arrived slightly before ours, went to the new lighthouse first. Incidentally it takes about a twenty minute leisurely stroll to go from one lighthouse to the other. The new lighthouse was actually built in 1958 and so is now 66 years old. Naturally its all locked up. Peering through the grimy windows, I was disappointed not to spot an old tin of paint. I had thought this article was regulation window display at all lighthouses.

At the start of the 1900s, a fog signal station was introduced to the western end of the island, making two separate stations. There was also a Lloyds Signal Station introduced there to communicate with ships arriving from and going to America. I wonder if the islanders, down in the valley, thought their every move was being watched?

The harbour at Portmore

The harbour at Portmore with the old lighthouse on top of the hill behind. The terrain slopes down from the lighthouse to the end of the island. On the first little hump encountered is the little graveyard. The second smaller hump belongs to the seabirds.

The old lighthouse was established in 1813 (probably the first established by the Ballast Board and their inspector, George Halpin?) and was a stone tower 40 feet tall on the eastern end of the island. This is how it looked in its heyday (the cow is long gone and the keeper too)

And the same view today - 

There was a large perimeter space enclosed by a wall that marked the limits of the lighthouse territory. It was remarked by the Ordnance Survey guys in 1824 that the keepers' garden was lush with vegetables while there was very little gardening done in the rest of the island. One wonders at the relationship between keepers and islanders particularly in times of hardship and continuous storms when fishing was curtailed and boats could not reach the island. Food grew scarce, people went hungry, yet up on the hill, the lightkeepers had plenty. 

When the new lighthouse was built in 1958 it was found that the old tower partially blocked its beam, so it was unceremoniously pulled down. Rusty plates, the mercury bath and stair rods still lie all around. Even so, the beam of the new light is still interrupted by the hill on which the lighthouse stands. I'm surprised they didn't pull down the hill.

As I said, further on from the old lighthouse is the small graveyard which, I believe, was belonging to Irish Lights personnel and their families. I believe - though I'm willing to be corrected on this - that the islanders rowed the bodies of their dead over to the mainland for burial there. The lighthouse graveyard has naturally been untended for many years. There is a large celtic cross, one legible grave and then a number of rocks and other stones marking the graves of long-forgotten infants and children and possibly wives and husbands too.

The only legible headstone is that of Annie E. Young who died in March 1863 aged about two years. She was the daughter of  keeper John Young and Mary Page (more about her here)