Eggarikenna-Rathlin Island
“I know my geography pretty well, and I have never heard of the island of Eggarikenna. Is that a made-up name?”
Eggarikenna
The Greek cartographers named Eggarikenna, as early as 300 AD. It is now known as Rathlin Island, and could be found in the North Sea above the Town of Ballycastle in Northern Ireland.
Climate
Rough North Sea weather, famous for high Gale warnings. Lots of high cliff faces worn down by years of erosion.
Flora and fauna
In the summer, flowers just shoot out of the ground all over this beautiful island. There’s so much rain that it’s always green.
The fields are strewn with rocks that have to be cleared to make the land plowable.
The island is a natural habitat for a particular type of puffin. The Fratercula arctica puffin, which can be seen in abundance during the summer months.
History
Rathlin was probably known to the Romans, Pliny referring to “Reginia” and Ptolemy to “Rhicina” or “Eggarikenna”.
Rathlin was the site of the first Viking raid on Ireland, according to the Annals of Ulster. The pillaging of the island’s church and burning of its buildings took place in 795.
The island has been settled at least as far back as the Mesolithic period. A Neolithic stone axe factory featuring porcellanite stone is to be found in Brockley, a cluster of houses within the townland of Ballygill Middle. They were traded across Ireland; these were the most important Irish stone axe sources of their time.
In 2006, an ancient burial was discovered when a driveway was being expanded by the island’s only pub, dating back to the early Bronze Age, ca. 2000 BC. Genomic analysis of DNA from the bodies showed a strong continuity with the genetics of the modern Irish population and established that the continuity of Irish population dates back at least 1000 years longer than had previously been understood.
There is also an unexcavated Viking vessel in a mound formation.
-Source Wikipedia
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