Rathlin 2022
As of writing this, it’s been over a year since we left Rathlin in 2022 but I wanted to write a bit about our time there as it was a very important and special part of our lives. As a result of the large time gap before writing, this account will be somewhat disjoint compared to my Rathlin 2023 recap.
Finding out about Rathlin
Whilst planning what to do over the summer, Mya was browsing different residential volunteering opportunities and came across Rathlin Island with the RSPB. The more we looked into it the more we loved the idea and eagerly applied. We both got the position and decided on how to get there from Durham, our departure point. We realised we could technically get there all in one day, but that did mean the day started at 3am… “Oh well” we thought, “at least it would save us a night’s accommodation”.
We saw on the volunteering information guide that we should bring our own food for at least the first week, and we thought we’d pack for both weeks as it would be easier not having to work out getting food for the second week. We had a large suitcase which we packed with all the food we would need for two weeks and we were ready for Rathlin.
The epic journey to Rathlin
At 3am we just about woke up and wandered our way to the bus stop. Over the next 17 hours we would bus, bus, plane, bus, train, bus, ferry, car our way to Rathlin. The journey itself went pretty smoothly, with the only memorable hiccup being when we were checking in our suitcase of snacks at the airport. We were next in the queue when the person at the desk left for a few minutes. Back at home we tried to estimate the weight of the full suitcase by what it said on the outside of the food packing and ball park-ing the total weight. We were pretty confident, but just to be sure, we snuck our suitcase onto the weighing scales to make sure it was under the 23kg limit. It was considerably more than 23kg… Frantically, we opened our case and were stuffing spaghetti into our backpacks and rice into our pockets, much to the amusement, or confusion, to the rest of the holiday makers in the queue. After several more weighings we got just under the limit and at the perfect time, the person behind the desk returned, completely unaware of our small packing panic mere seconds ago.
Falling in love with Rathlin
Very quickly, we fell in love with Rathlin. Getting to walk to work every day through the reserve, getting along with all the staff and volunteers, seeing the colony every day.
Quite quickly, we had run dry the supply of board games, some of which were from before Mya and I were even born, but when one of the volunteers introduced us to Rummikub, we couldn’t stop playing. It would be our goto board game for the next few weeks.
One interesting mystery which went unsolved for a whole year was a red pool we’d see at the base of the stack, along with a few other places on Rathlin. After talking to some of the visitors and doing some research online, we didn’t have a certain answer but our best guess was that it might be minerals from the rock leaching into the pool. However, during our stay in 2023 we finally knew the answer, via Stickybeak’s tweet. The colour comes from the presence of haloarchaea within the pool. These are salt-tolerant photosynthetic archaea which thrive in high salt concentrations with the pink colour coming from the high levels of carotenoid pigments within the cells. Carotenoid pigmentation is also what causes the pink colour of flamingos and the flesh of salmon. This explanation of the red pool disappointed some of the kids who found out it was not in fact a giant pool of blood.
A change of plans
It was coming up to the end of our two week stay when plans took a turn. One day, two of the staff were feeling under the weather and in the evening, we got a call from our manager saying they have tested positive for Covid, along with a third member of staff. This was a bad situation as we need at least four staff to keep both the lighthouse and visitor centre open, and with it being the busiest time of year, closing the lighthouse would mean not making anywhere near enough money, and unhappy visitors. To make matters worse, our manager had found out that the two volunteers replacing us after we leave have cancelled last minute. Taking this as a sign to not leave Rathlin, as we were loving it so much, Mya and I decided to delay our flights by two weeks, staying for an extra week to help keep the centre open, and then spend a week traveling around Northern Ireland. This plan worked and allowed us to spend another week enjoying Rathlin, and as a bonus, continue having visitors down to see the birds and making money.
Coming to the end of our third week, we were starting to plan our travels after Rathlin when our manager phones us saying next week's volunteers had also cancelled last minute. Taking this as another sign to stay on Rathlin yet again we ditched our Northern Ireland trip to help with the centre. In the end, we had spent a whole month on Rathlin, twice as long as originally planned, only leaving since we had commitments which couldn’t be shifted, otherwise we would have stayed for the rest of the season.
A few months after leaving, we got an email from our manager saying she had nominated us for the “RSPB President’s award for inspirational volunteer year of the year”. This came as a huge shock to us as we saw all the circumstances leading to us staying were just excuses for us to not leave and hadn’t done anything remotely ‘inspirational’. Even more astonishing was that a month or so later we had an email from the RSPB saying we had won and could attend the online award ceremony in June.
This ceremony was a very wholesome event with everyone showing support and praise for amazing people who had put in huge amounts of effort for conservation and the RSPB. Other president’s award winners had raised £30,000, coordinate over 200 volunteers, volunteered for over 15 years, and then it came to us who just didn’t want to leave a nice island on our summer holiday. We felt slightly out of place. After the ceremony, we were contacted by a RSPB writer who wanted to interview us about our time on Rathlin. This felt very funny as other people saw what we did as an ‘amazing act of going above and beyond to help the RSPB’, which was party true as we did want to keep the centre open, but we just didn’t want to leave Rathlin. If you want, you can read about the worthy president’s award winners and our little interview.
Moths and meteors
One morning, one of the staff said they were going mothing the next morning and invited me along. I was very curious to see how this works so I happily accepted, even with the early start of 5:30am. This also coincided with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower which I was hoping to stay up for. This year, there would be an almost full moon which would make it less than ideal for watching shooting stars, but I was still optimistic as the forecast was looking favourable. As darkness came and the moon rose, I lied on the bench outside the cottage and watched the sky for any meteors. It ended up being several hours and by midnight I had seen a few good ones and decided to call it a night as some high cloud was starting to move in. Looking at the forecast it was meant to clear up at around three so I thought I’d catch a bit of sleep before trying again. Waking up several hours later feeling surprisingly refreshed, I headed outside to a brilliantly clear and still night where I resumed my stargazing on the bench. Meteors are more frequent as you head into the early morning and waking up extra early seemed to pay off on this particular night as I saw a great range of them over the next few hours heading into sunrise. At last, when the sky was too bright to see any stars, it was time for mothing!
We headed down towards the harbour where the trap was left overnight and started to go through the two traps. This was my first ever time mothing and I was loving it. Seeing the range of colour, patterns, shapes, and sizes of all the moths was amazing, and watching Stickybeak’s Ric and Hazel effortlessly rattle off dozens of species’ common and scientific names was awesome. It was at this moment I had fell in love with moths. After looking through both traps and the surrounding walls and vegetation we walked to the nearby lifeguard station which usually harbours moths of their own with the emergency lighting on all night. It was here, when I thought it couldn’t get better, where I saw a garden tiger moth. The vibrant patterns and colour looked almost fake, like it was a drawing, and I’d have never thought moths could look anything like this. Eventually though, party time was over and I had to get ready for work, and as soon as I got to there I bought the garden tiger moth pin badge.
Opening the lighthouse
During almost all of our 4 week stay on Rathlin, the West Light was closed to the public. This was due to the Commissioners of Irish Lights modernising the rotation system for the light itself. Until that point, the light was rotating on a bed of mercury, in order for it to rotate with minimal resistance. However, since mercury isn’t the safest substance to work with, it was to be replaced by ball bearings. This work was finished in mid-August and we were able to open it up for the public for the last few weeks of the season. This came at a particularly good time since our main selling point, the puffins, had left at the start of the month.
A life changing trip
Rathlin will always be a very special place for me as it was here that I realised I wanted to work in wildlife and conservation, not physics, and led me to eventually drop out of my physics undergrad course after two years. This huge decision to change the course of my career and life was thanks to the people I met and the island itself opening my eyes to what I really enjoyed and wanted in life. Being on Rathlin made me realise what I really care about in the world and what I want to dedicate my life too. Looking back, I never would have guessed that all these massive changes in my life and amazing the people I’ve met were all due to us making a seemingly small decision about what to do over the summer.
Written on 2nd Dec 2023