Staffa
On my first trip to the island of Mull on the west coast of Scotland, one of the planned trips was to the tiny island of Staffa. A couple of boat companies offer trips here from Fionnphort in the south west of Mull. I chose “Staffa Trips” which run 2 trips a day that last roughly 3 hours and cost around £30 each. Staffa is about 6 miles north of the departure point in Fionnphort and takes around 45 minutes to sail to with the added chance of seeing some sea life on the way! A couple of Common Seals started us off as we past the tip of Iona.
We left our caravan in Tobermory early for a steady drive of around 1hr45 to Fionnphort in time for our 10am sailing. The boat arrives from the island of Iona just 15 minutes sailing time away and after a quick ticket check we were on board…It was a lovely warm day during the English school holidays so the trip was packed with tourists! While waiting for our boat we watched the other tour company “Staffa Tours” picking up their passengers for their own trips which also seemed to be very busy - they were offering trips to Staffa as well as Lunga in the Treshnish isles a little further away.
On our journey across to Staffa, almost at our destination the boat suddenly slowed down and the captain informed us that we had picked up a small pod of Common Dolphin and he positioned the boat on either side to try to give everyone a decent view. The Dolphins came very close, jumping out and causing lots of whoops and gasps in our boat! A magnificent sight!
The main attraction of Staffa is Fingals Cave, with its basalt columns formed during volcanic activity 59 million years ago. The cave itself is famed for its acoustics and inspiration of German composer Felix Mendelssohn who after visiting here composed his Hebrides Overture - writing down the first few bars there and then!
In the spring however the island becomes home to a colony of Atlantic Puffins which arrive to breed. This was why I was here! When the boat docked we had an hour ashore and the choice was to either go left, along the basalt columns to see Fingals cave…or climb the steps to the top of the cliff and walk along the 15ish minutes to where the Puffins are nesting. In fact nearly all of our boat headed up the cliff for the birds!
The puffins here are actually welcoming of humans as they know that when the humans are there, their predators such as Black Backed Gulls and Great Skuas will not come near. In fact when the people are not around the Puffins will spend most of their time on the sea. Due to this the Puffins allow people to get very close (obviously not too close) and you can just sit on the grass while the Puffins fly in and out and wander around as close as a meter away.
With the knowledge that we had a 15 minute walk back to the boat that gave us around 30 minutes to enjoy the Puffins which just flew by. I could have sat there all day taking shots of these wonderfully characteristic birds amongst the grass and flowers and to be honest I left feeling like I had not achieved anywhere near a full potential photography wise. Maybe next time a visit to Lunga is needed which is a similar situation with the Puffins but you get much longer on the island - One for another day….
On the trip back to Fionnphort we were looking around on the beautifully calm sea for any more sea life that may surface and not far from the end of the trip once again the boat slowed amid a report from another boat in the area of a Minke Whale. We hung around for a few minutes but no sighting sadly. It’s great however how the boats crew try to incorporate these things into your trip and think about everyone getting a view as well.
Back at the start of the trip after 3 hours, after seeing seals, dolphins, puffins and almost a whale and still having the entire afternoon ahead I was pretty pleased with the trip! I highly recommend it! My only downside was only having an hour on Staffa but that being said, definitely the closest and most amazing puffin encounter I have had!