Torr Head

Torr Head is a dramatic headland on the north Antrim coast — and, at its closest point, only about 12 miles from the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, making it one of the shortest sea crossings between Ireland and Britain.

The government first established a station here around 1730 to combat smuggling. A coast guard station followed in 1822, doubling as a Lloyd’s signal station: watchers here recorded transatlantic ships passing the headland and relayed word of their safe passage to London and to the ships’ ports of destination. In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi and his assistants used Torr Head to make contact with Rathlin Island by radio — testing whether wireless could usefully report ships arriving safely, a companion experiment to his better-known work at Marconi’s Cottage further along the coast.

The station stayed in Admiralty hands as a War Signal Station through the First World War. In 1920 it was raided for weapons during the War of Independence, and the site was evacuated shortly after.

Today Torr Head is a quiet spot for the view alone — on a clear day, Scotland is unmistakably close across the water.