Rathlin O'Birne (

Gaeilge Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the p ...

: ''Reachlainn Uí Bhirn'') is an island located to the south west of the district of

Glencolumbkille ''Gleann Cholm Cille'', anglicised as Glencolumbkille or Glencolmcille, is a small district on the Atlantic coast of southwest County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Named after Saint Colm Cille (Columba), it is also a civ ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, Ireland, and 2 km west of

Malin Beg Malin Beg (''Gaeilge: Málain Bhig'') is a small Gaeltacht village south of Glencolumbkille, County Donegal, Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean ...

Lighthouse

Rathlin O'Birne

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

went into operation on 14 April 1856. In 1974, a

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioacti ...

was installed, making it home to Ireland's first

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

ed lighthouse. However, by 1987, the power output of the RTG had dwindled to an insufficient level and the lighthouse was converted to

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...

, which was in use until 1991, at which point it was converted to

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

. A road, with a

cut stone Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

wall on both sides, runs from the beach to the lighthouse to protect the lighthouse keepers as they made their way across the island.

Accidents

*On 7 January 1975, the trawler ''Evelyn Marie'' sank on the west side ("the rock") of Rathlin O Birne with the loss of 6 crew. *A year later, in November 1976, the trawler ''Carrig Una'' sank in the same spot with the loss of 5 crew. *In July 2017, two men died when their

RIB In vertebrate anatomy, ribs ( la, costae) are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ches ...

ran out of fuel close to the shore of Rathlin O'Birne, after having been rescued from the same area four weeks prior.

References

{{Irish lighthouses Islands of County Donegal Uninhabited islands of Ireland