A Trip Out to the Farne Islands

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The next three weekends I will be working at Le Mans for the build up and the 80th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is also the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship so we decided to head north for my last free weekend.  We've always wanted to see Puffins while we are on Mull but are usually too early or too late to see these beautiful birds. However the Farne Islands in Northumberland are just 3 hours up the A1 from here so we booked a hotel and spent the weekend just south of the Scottish border.


We booked a trip out to Staple Island, which is part of the outer Farne Islands, from Seahouses on Sunday morning.  The weather in England has been glorious but as we parked the car we noticed that we couldn't see anything out to sea due to the heavy fog.  Luckily this didn't stop the boats going out as visibility wasn't too bad and the fee of £35 for two adults and one child was also not too bad.

A trip around the various islands seeing the bird colonies on the stacks and cliffs, plus the grey seals, we landed on Staple Island for 1 hour.  The islands are part of the National Trust and a landing fee is payable but as we are members of the National Trust we didn't have to pay the £15.50 fee.  The walking areas are roped off but you can still get very close to the puffins, cormorants, shags, gulls and guillemots that are nesting on the island.  The noise and smell is over powering but it is an amazing experience.

We came to see Puffins and with 10,000 on the island we weren't disappointed.  The little birds were everywhere on the cliffs, popping out of burrows on the grassy top of the island and in the air.  The 60-minutes flew by and we had to head back to the boat to go back to Seahouses.

There are various boats that go out to the islands everyday and you can choose to spend longer on Staple Island if you wish.  We went out with Billy Shiel's Glad Tidings which had plenty of room for the 20 people who made the trip with us.  For more information visit - http://www.farne-islands.com/index.htm







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