It is hard to imagine ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland had any benefit but keeping the tourists away – unless you are a hotelier – might be one of them. Although some of the most beautiful and unspoilt scenery in the world, never mind the British Isles, is now starting to attract visitors, a few hidden corners still remain.

One of them is Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland’s only inhabited island. However, there are only 100 inhabitants and visitors are few. The most famous recent one was Richard Branson, who crashed his  hot air balloon into the sea nearby after his record-breaking circumnaviation of the globe in 1987. Local boatman Tommy Cecil pulled him out but only, local legend has it, after making sure Branson made a £25,000 donation to the local community centre.

Rathlin –  locals call it Raghery, a variation of the ancient Irish name – lies a third of the way between Ballycastle harbour in County Antrim and Scotland’s Mull of Kintyre. It is a tiny, rugged island – about 11km long and less than 2km wide – but the scenery is varied, from high cliffs in the west that are home to one of Europe’s largest seabird colonies, to rolling lowland heath and lakes in the east.

There are three lighthouses on Rathlin, a hint to both its wild coast and its position at the narrowest point between Ireland and Scotland. The North Sea pours into the gap, hitting the tides of the Irish sea storming out, making a passage that is treacherous to shipping – there are at least 40 shipwrecks around the island – and spectacular to see. The mood of sea and sky changes every hour.

People have lived on Rathlin for at least 8,000 years, making it probably the first Irish island to be inhabited. Ancient axe heads (from 5,000BC), Bronze Age graves (3,000BC) and an Iron Age fort (500BC) are among the marks they have left behind. By the time of the Irish Famine in the 1840s, the population was more than 1,000 and the island is covered with reminders of life during those times. About 500 people left Rathlin Island in 1846 alone, bound for a better life in North America.

The waters around Rathlin hold some 40 wrecks, the most famous of which is HMS Drake. Capable of a top speed of 23 knots, she was one of the fastest and heaviest cruisers of her time and was escorting a transatlantic convoy. when she was hit in Rathlin Sound by a torpedo from a German U-Boat. The SS Lugano and HMS Brisk were sunk during the same attack and the wrecks also lie in Rathlin Sound just over a mile from each other. The technically challenging dive to the SS Lugano is considered one of the best in the British Isles. Another famous wreck is the SS Tuscania, first US troopship to be torpedoed in WWI.

The clear waters around Rathlin Island, the bottom kept clean by the fast tides, also make it one of the most important areas in Europe for sponges. In 2007, a team of scientists discovered 28 new species in the seas around the island during a six-week expedition, and three species which had never before been seen in the British Isles. A specimen of the rare Fan Mussel (atrina fragilis), Britain’s largest and rarest bivalve mollusc, thought extinct in Irish waters, was also discovered.

Those who don’t fancy a dip in these chilly waters will enjoy walks on land, with the RSPB bird sanctuary a popular destination. Rathlin is home during the spring and summer to some 100,000 seabirds of seven different species, including puffins, guillemots and kittiwakes, as well as razorbills and fulmars. These massive colonies also attract predators such as kestrels, peregrine falcons and buzzards. You’ll hear – and hopefully see – dozens of other species on Rathlin’s shores, fields and lakes, many rare elsewhere, ranging from chaffinches and corncrakes, through eiders and linnets, to skylarks and wrens.

In recent years, perhaps due to climate change causing lack of food at sea, there has been a vast decrease in some types of sea birds. Puffin, razorbill and fulmar numbers fell by half between 2000 and 2007 and guillemot numbers fell by 15 per cent. As human visitors increase, the bird numbers drop. Even birds have their Troubles.

Go: www.rathlinballycastleferry.com

Stay: www.rcda.org

More: www.rathlin-island.co.uk