Cooraghy Pier, Keeble Td, Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim

Cooraghy Pier Complex, Rathlin Island

The Cooraghy Pier complex on Rathlin Island comprises six integrated structures built between 1912 and 1916 by the Commissioners of Irish Lights to support the construction of the West Lighthouse at Bull Point. The complex represents an innovative early use of reinforced concrete and provides an ingenious solution to delivering materials to a lighthouse surrounded on three sides by inaccessible vertical cliffs.

The pier itself is a small mass concrete structure projecting into the sea at the southern end of the complex, with recessed landing steps on its eastern side and mooring rings at each end. At its north-west end stands a substantial cast-concrete block supporting the central post of a derrick, used to transfer materials from boats to the platform above. Only a diagonal supporting strut anchoring the derrick's top to the platform's south-west corner now survives.

The platform overlooks the pier and is constructed of mass concrete built atop a rocky chalk outcrop. A flight of concrete stairs on its western side connects platform to pier. A two-bar tubular steel railing runs around the platform's edge, with a gap on its south-east side where two removable chain links (now missing) once fitted. A 39-inch gauge pair of tramway lines runs northwards across the platform to the inclined plane. At the platform's north-west corner is a single-bay, single-storey derelict store building of reinforced concrete with a roof supported on a transverse timber beam and four skylights (windows missing). The concrete walls, cast in situ, have no openings except for a pair of double wooden doors on the south-west elevation (left door now missing).

The inclined plane rises up the cliff face in reinforced concrete T-section, measuring 158 centimetres (62 inches) wide by 21 centimetres (8 inches) deep at the top slab. An angled reinforced-concrete strut supports it towards the top, and metal brackets set into both edges once held the tram tracks (now removed). At the cliff edge the rock face has been cut away to form a trench allowing the tramway to pass through. Beyond the cliff edge the tramway continued at a gentler angle towards the winch house, though it is now severely overgrown and difficult to trace.

A shelter, presumed to have served those using the inclined plane, is cut into an east-facing slope towards the plane's top. It has a reinforced-concrete roof of very shallow pitch and rubble masonry walls, with only its east gable visible as it is cut into the slope. The entrance door is missing.

The winch house is a T-shaped single-storey building cut into a south-facing slope at the north end of the inclined plane, constructed entirely of cast-in-situ reinforced concrete with a flat roof. Its only opening is a doorway at its south end (door missing). At the north end of its entrance passage is a winch with steel cable wrapped around it, originally driven through bevel gears (parts of which survive). The engine that powered it is long gone.

Access to the complex from the public road is via an unsurfaced track revetted with rubble masonry along its eastern side as it approaches an entrance gate (now represented only by a slender concrete post). The track, heavily overgrown and difficult to follow, continues to the shelter and then as a narrow track to a flight of concrete steps running south down the steep slope with a tubular metal handrail along its eastern side. From the bottom of the steps the track continues south-west diagonally down the slope's face, makes a sharp 180-degree bend, then runs eastwards down to the platform's north end. This section too is very overgrown and hazardous to negotiate.

The complex sits at the base of steep sea cliffs, bounded to the east by a stream which has cut a steep gully down the slope face. The northern and western boundaries are marked by a tubular metal railing supported on concrete posts.

The West Lighthouse at Bull Point, 1.2 kilometres north-west, came into operation in 1919. Cooraghy was the nearest feasible landing place for construction materials, making necessary not only the inclined tramway to hoist materials up the cliff but also a road to Bull Point. The complex is marked on the 1922 Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions. The property was transferred by the Commissioners of Irish Lights to the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland) and now forms part of Keeble National Nature Reserve. The pier complex was surveyed for the Rathlin Island Archaeological Survey and was scheduled in 2004. The combination of pier and inclined plane is unique in Northern Ireland, and the complex has group value with the West Lighthouse.