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 ...

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

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 Tyrconn ...

, 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: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is se ...

Lighthouse

Rathlin O'Birne lighthouse 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 ...

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 generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

, 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 photovolta ...

. A road, with a cut stone 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 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