Residents of an historically disputed Northern Irish island are 'half-jokingly' hoping to become Scottish in a bid to save their EU status.

Rathlin, currently governed from Belfast, was confirmed as an Irish island four centuries ago after a bizarre test on whether a snake would live or die there.

But after the UK's vote to leave the EU, some residents of the island are looking to Scotland to keep them inside the union.

A campaign has been launched on the island since the vote to re-establish its historic Scottish connections.

Campaigners claim a future Yes vote in a Scottish independence referendum would therefore secure the island's EU funding which has helped double the population.

The funding has also been behind the creation of a new harbour and the island's connection to the national grid.

A spokesman for the campaign said: "In the immediate aftermath of the referendum result, people on Rathlin talked, like people all over the UK, of little else.

"And very quickly talk turned, only half-jokingly, to new ways of thinking about the island's relationship with its neighbouring islands.

"A unilateral declaration of independence worked for some, but others looked east and north to Rathlin's historic friends in Scotland."

Michael Cecil, chairman of Rathlin's community association, said that residents have looked on with envy at how Scotland manages its islands.

He also admitted that islanders have joked about becoming a tax haven.

Mr Cecil said: "Rathlin folk talk jokingly about becoming independent and what the benefits of that could be.

"We've also told the civil servants in the past we'd consider moving our allegiances.

"In the last few years we've felt well looked after but if Brexit doesn't work out, people will look with seriousness at our options."

Rathlin, which lies just 12 miles west of Kintyre, was disputed territory between Scotland and Ireland for hundreds of years.

It played a key role in the early medieval kingdom of Dalriada and was the site of a massacre of MacDonald clan members by the Campbells.

Ireland was given ownership of the island in the 17th century after a test which determined if a snake could live on the island.

The logic behind the test being that as St Patrick had banished snakes from Ireland, then it would surely die on the island if it was truly Irish territory.

It soon died and Ireland's ownership was confirmed.