The call of the wild is stronger than ever for debut author and nature campaigner Ruby Free who, three-and-a-bit years after leaving her dream job on Rathlin Island, is excited to rewild a farm in Co Antrim.
Today though, the most pressing thing was catching some runaway animals and she was “just trying to herd some goats” when I rang during “a typical day on the farm” with ecologist boyfriend, Craig Holmes – chasing, feeding, planting and gathering.
“It’s just two little goats, but they are super-cheeky and super-hard to catch,” she says breathlessly when we resume the call, “and what doesn’t help is that our dog, Isla, who is actually half-sheep dog and who should be able to help me out, is kind of terrified of them.”
And so the work continues for the award-winning conservationist (recently named one of the 100 most influential environmental professionals in the UK on the ENDS power list) who worked as a visitor experience officer at the RSPB Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre, wrote a book about it all and took herself off to Queen’s University to complete an MSc in Ecological Management and Conservation Biology (involving another “really cool” placement on an island off the coast of Canada to study humpback whales).
Described as a love letter to the island, Rathlin: A Wild Life (Blackstaff Press) is also a gentle call to action from the Surfers Against Sewage campaigner who was encouraged by friends and family to compile all her diary entries and phone notes taken over a six-month period into a book.
In what is more of a memoir, really, she documents the escapades of “the big five” – puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars – as well as interweaving some of her own story, telling how the island has helped “slow her down”, eased her anxiety due to ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and encouraged her to stretch and “fly” herself.
Leaving her home in Cornwall in 2021, the then 21-year-old quickly immersed herself in Rathlin’s relative solitude, taking joys in the simple life – as well as living a little on the wild side: there were nocturnal ramblings to find a corncrake (which islanders have successfully brought back from the brink of extinction), as well as midnight cold water dips and companionable swims with seals.
Read more: Detection dog joins seabird rescue mission on Rathlin Island
She watched, mesmerised, as three minke whales circled the waters surrounding West Lighthouse, from where she also spotted an orca (killer whale). Then there was a “magical” sighting of Rathlin’s golden hare and – one of her top highlights - wakening one morning to see a pod of dolphins from her bedroom window.
Another time, she clocked a rare thresher shark while travelling on the ferry to the mainland. “I used to work on wildlife boats in Cornwall and when I was telling some of my colleagues about the thresher shark, as well as colleagues from the RSPB, I think they were all struggling to believe me because they are so rare… and then I showed them the picture and everyone was blown away,” she recalls.
Was it a good thing that she wasn’t on one of her wild swims at the time? No, on the contrary – she reckons it would have been “pretty fun” to have been in the water with a thresher shark: “They are actually completely harmless to humans - they are very focused on catching fish, so I wouldn’t have been too worried. Sharks are such amazing animals; I feel we have completely villainised them.”
It shows what can happen when people come together to create change
— Ruby Free
Puffins, though, are the big draw for visitors to Rathlin – the ‘puffin bus’ is a Rathlin institution and comes packed with tourists each year in puffin season - and Ruby bonded with three in particular: “wise old Busy Lizzie” and a loving couple she named Puff and Finn, whose puffling she saw make its first brave leap off a ledge and into the open sea.
Read more: New Rathlin ferry operator reflects on successful first year
But even these much-loved “clowns of the sea” – collectively called a circus – are under threat, she says, partly due to harsh weather from climate change which is delaying the breeding season and affecting ecosystems linked to their “well-timed cycle”.
“I could see hundreds of puffins when I first arrived and it was brilliant,” she enthuses, “but I knew there should be more. Puffins have declined massively in recent decades and if trends continue, we could lose 89% of them by 2050.
“Even their poo - something that most of us wouldn’t know to be important - is vital for our survival because when it’s washed into the sea, it stimulates the growth of phytoplankton, the organism that produces over half the oxygen we breathe.”
Read more: Rathlin Island selected for £4.6m environmental project
Despite setbacks, island work continues with more nature-friendly farming practices and community-led conservation work - including the recent replanting of nettles to create the habitat necessary for the return of the corncrake, Rathlin now being one of the few places in Ireland where the bird has returned to breed.
Back on Ballyconnelly farm outside Portglenone with their two pygmy goats, four chickens, occasional wounded hedgehogs, “a few kittens found on the side of the road” and Isla the dog, the campaigning ecologists are full of ideas for the future. There will be more “rewilding” projects, more tree planting, more vegetable growing and definitely more nettles to harvest for Rathlin.
“Living on Rathlin has empowered me to do more to protect nature and wildlife,” says Ruby, who describes Rathlin as one of the wildest places she has ever lived. “It is a magical place,” she says, “with fields beaming with life. In a wildflower meadow, I saw 16 species I’d never seen before and 10 new birds. It shows what can happen when people come together to create change.”
Read more: Puffin population may appear to be thriving, but more research needed, experts warn
Her passion for the natural world surfaced at an early age – she collected woodlice for fun and made a house for them as a youngster – and she credits her parents and two younger sisters, Lydia and Mabel, for instilling a sense of responsibility and encouraging her to grab every adventure that comes her way.
“My dad is an art therapist and my mum worked with homeless people for 30 years and although not fanatically into nature, they showed a real care for people and their surroundings,” she says. “I think that is why I want to do community work on the farm, because I love connecting with other people.
“My younger sisters are both an inspiration - Lydia was born with a disability, a connective tissue disorder, called EDS (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) and Mabel nearly died from anorexia when she was a teenager. They both have shown me how to grab every opportunity and not let anything hold you back.”
As for her own ADHD, she thinks it can sometimes be a “superpower”. “I have come to realise that ADHD isn’t this crazy, negative thing,” she adds. “When I was at the seabird centre or in nature, I could notice a lot of things that might pass other people by because my senses are heightened - and as much as that was always been seen as a negative, in nature I can use it for something good.”
Rathlin: A Wild Life is published in paperback by Blackstaff Press (£12.99). Follow Ruby on her book tour @RubyFreeWild on Instagram and other social media pages
