Rathlin could get its first permanent chip shop!

Visitors to the island will be familiar with the chip van there (pictured right), but owner Emma McFaul wants to anchor the business in Church Bay in a more permanent way and has applied for planning permission for a chip shop - under her home.

If the planning application is successful, Emma will begin work 'below deck' as soon as this year's summer rush is over. As more and more visitors set sail for the island after a recent advertising campaign, she will be busy feeding the hungry explorers with the traditional seaside fish and chips from her well - known van.

Visitors to island, popular with bird watchers, have been soaring recently. Official figures from the Rathlin Visitors Centre, saw numbers rise to 12,337 in 2009/10 from 7761 in the previous year. With so many hungry visitors, it should be plain sailing for the new outlet if it gets the go ahead.

Emma's chip van is already a popular part of the visitor experience. It provides visitors with a taste of the island, with local crab burgers amongst the more traditional food available. Emma hopes that having a permanent building will enable her to ‘chip -in’ to the market right throughout the year.

"If everything goes to plan, I will be able to open throughout the year. Things are very busy in the island at the moment, we have had a lot of visitors and when things settle down after the summer I would like to get to work on the chip shop. We're waiting for permission from the planners" Emma said.

Rathlin may be remote, but not remote enough to escape the cuts in funding that face the rest of the country. Emma hoped the venture would be eligible for funding from the Rural Development scheme, but this now looks unlikely with government cuts on the way.

However, the island has cemented itself as a popular destination for tourists, and can only continue to grow. If you fancy setting sail to discover the island for yourself, you can get further information at www.discovernorthernireland.com