That might be because there’s a massive Viking influence in the Shetland Islands and you’ll find loads of Norse influences like the magical Up Helly Aa fire festival held annually in January, Mousa Broch (one of the largest ancient forts in the world), and Jarlshof which is the site of a 9th-century Viking settlement. If I told you I could show you what are probably Scotland’s most northerly pair of breeding yellow wagtails you’d probably feign vague but polite interest. The Scottish Seabird Centre for the Firth of Forth: Enjoy an hour-long cruise around the island of Craigleith and the Bass Rock, the world’s largest colony of Northern gannets. Even so, from the tops of the surrounding cliffs you’ll get amazing views of the hundreds of seabirds that call the coastline their home and you’ll frequently see puffins amongst the guillemots and gulls noisily screeching overhead. I had to look it up. Winter is a bit of a different story as the puffins like to move elsewhere when the temperature drops but you’ll still see fulmars, shags, gulls and guillemots in the area. Duncansby Head is located in the far north of Scotland a few miles around the coastline from John O’ Groats. The name ‘puffin’ is an old-English word originally used to describe the unrelated Manx shearwater. The quaint East Lothian coastal town of North Berwick has a lot going for it. The Isle of Lunga is one of the Treshnish Isles which lies between the Isle of Tiree and the Isle of Mull on Scotland’s west coast. Ironically, one of the first results I found for it showed it in a small pack, being sold as dog-food. Puffins respond to increasing light levels and put on their breeding dress – they’re much more drab out at sea in the winter. *They oldest puffin ringed by scientists – and whose ring was found – was over 30 years old. Everybody loves puffins. There are no areas on the west coast mainland where you will see puffins unfortunately. Copyright: All photos, videos, downloadable files and texts are the property of Craig Smith unless otherwise cited or under a CC0 licence and may not be used or reproduced elsewhere without permission. See, I told you being an auk, even a puffin, is a serious business. Homepage » Articles » Outdoors & Nature Sightseeing. At voyage end, before it was donated as a specimen to the Museum at Edinburgh University, it was given one last swim. The spectacular cliffs and sea stacks are a dream destination for ornithologists with puffin, fulmar, guillemot and one of the world’s largest populations of gannets. In comparison, puffins are a little stand-offish. In addition to the cute shops and cafes of the old fishing port there’s Tantallon Castle and Berwick Law (two of the counties top attractions) in the immediate area as well as pristine stretches of golden beach to the east and west. This is another gorgeous part of north Scotland that’s wild, windswept and only lightly inhabited by humans, making it a perfect nesting site for the small colony of puffins that call the cliffs and sand dunes their home. (Pictured here) Puffins at Hermaness, Shetland. They need wings both to fly and to swim with. Getting to these islands is a bit of (make that a lot of) a trek and you’ll need to catch a ferry either from the mainland town of Oban to North Uist or the island village of Stein on Skye. On the wing these wee birds (they’re only around a foot in length with a less than two-foot wingspan) are surprisingly agile – despite how stocky their bodies are – but they have to flap their wings at near-hummingbird speeds to stay aloft. Same applies if you are casually puffin-spotting from the rail of, say, a CalMac or Northlink ferry. In Iceland, where they still hunt puffins (no comment necessary), they splash orange paint on the rocks and and wear orange clothes as puffins are attracted to orange. Where are the most popular places to see Puffins in Scotland? Then the great auk was gone for ever. You can see them interact with each other, clean their feathers, and simply be their adorable selves. To see puffins on the eastern coast of the United States, travelers must head up to Maine, where the offshore islands welcome thousands of feathery friends come June. Nobody ever drooled over a black guillemot, but I like ’em. This part of Scotland’s coastline is wild and rugged, formed an age ago by active volcanos which left behind a magnificent stretch of sheer cliffs and offshore sea stacks. The centre also has a viewing platform with high-powered binoculars if you feel watching a TV screen is a bit too hands-off, but for the ultimate puffin-viewing experience you need to get out into the water which is where the tour boats come in. Uninhabited by humans for more than ninety years, St. Kilda has returned to nature with just a few ruined buildings on the main island of Hirta left to tell the tale of the people who lived there before they were evacuated in 1930. Most importantly, don't In front of them is a cliff, covered, stacked, thronged with guillemots (and razorbills), all braying and pecking and shuffling in the confined ledges. Bass Rock, if you’re unaware of it, is a huge outcrop lying a mile or so off the shoreline of North Berwick in East Lothian which has frequent sightseeing tours around it courtesy of the Scottish Seabird Centre. (Another place where you can stroll up to them , though slowly and carefully and with respect, as noted above.). Puffins come ashore to breed in late spring. Maybe you photographers want to try that if you want real close-ups? You might also be lucky and see Hoy’s sea eagles in the nearby Rackwick valley too. Telephone 01859 502007. And found some. Outaboutscotland.com is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. Duncansby Head near John O’ Groats. What took me by surprise as I sat on the edge of the tour boat wasn’t the number of gannets rather than the acrobatics of the puffins. Obviously, the terrain will be gentler but you can be sure that somewhere close by will be the vertiginous plunge to your doom, so take care, will you? Flightless, this penguin-like Northern Hemisphere bird was ruthlessly exploited for food and persecuted to extinction. It’s a wonder they have any time at all to stand around and pose for your enjoyment. Dress in layers and make sure you have rain gear even on a clear sunny day. This spot is quite near the car park so you don’t even need to walk that far to see them which has to make Sumburgh Head one of the most accessible puffin colonies in Britain. You might even get to like guillemots and other Scottish birds. Telephone 01586 552319. If you want to find out more about the Scottish Seabird Centre, the Bass Rock and other attractions in this part of the country check out my guide to The Best Places to Visit in East Lothian. They’re a very sociable lot, the other auks like guillemots and razorbills, pictured here. Outaboutscotland.com also participates in affiliate programs with Awin, CJ, and other sites. There are few places left on earth, where you can experience unspoiled nature and abundant wildlife.Lunga on the Treshnish Isles in Scotland is one of those rare places. Popular sites for wildlife tours include Foula, Noss and Hermaness where you can see vast flocks of gannets, arctic terns and skuas and Sumburgh Head which is the site of one of the world’s biggest puffin colonies. Hopeless under water. But hang on, there’s even more you should know about puffins…and if this doesn’t make you step back and give ‘em some space and respect, then…. Telephone 07831 885985 or 07732912370. Basking Shark Scotland for the Treshinish Isles: Visit the Treshnish Isles Special Area of Conservation, a highly important area for seabirds. (Well, they’re hardly going to get it from the health-food store, are they?). You can find flights to the Shetland Islands on Skyscanner. Museum demand for skins also hastened the end of the species. Seabirds and Seals for Shetland Island tours: Photographic opportunities with the awesome Noss cliffs in the background. Faraid Head in Sutherland. This was while Stevenson was inspecting the Eilean Glas lighthouse on Scalpay, which is just off the larger island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Around most of the coastline rugged cliffs act as home to thousands of pairs of birds and in the summer months there are fantastic seabird-spotting opportunities with over a million of them (one-tenth of Britain’s total seabird population) swooping across the islands. They are also on the island of Noss in some numbers, while you can also patronise a puffin or two at Hermaness right at the very top of Shetland. Telephone 01620 890202. They lay their eggs on the grassy slopes atop the cliff. Approximately 47 different bird species can be spotted at various times of the year on Lunga but if you want to see the puffins the best time to visit is from mid-April to early August when they land to raise their chicks. Unlike many bird species, a pair of puffins will stay together for life with one staying at home to look after their young and the other out at sea looking for food but they work together to build the nests which they return to year after year. Total commuting team from burrow to fishing ground and back may be as much as an hour and a half. The most important thing to remember during your potentially rewarding puffinesque encounters is that while you might be thrilled to see them, the feeling is unlikely to be reciprocated, clown outfit or not. St. Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve lies on the Berwickshire coast five miles north of Eyemouth between Dunbar and Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Book a trip to see the world’s third largest whirlpool, located to the northern tip of the Isle of Jura, off Scotland’s west coast. Oh, and the average puffin catches 450 sandeels per day. Word of warning, the proximity to the cliffs would be an issue with young children. Then they take off their orange makeup, hang up their fancy beaks, lock up the burrow for another year and head seawards too. The spectacular cliffs at Fowlsheugh are packed with more than 130,000 breeding seabirds during the spring and summer months. Go to St. Kilda for St. Kilda tours. The favourite is puffins, and you are almost certain to see them in May, June, and July. Most importantly, though you may hear puffins give a kind of deep yet nervous laugh, this does not give them a sense of humour. So there’s no point in scanning the vertical rock-faces where they’d need little puffinous pick-axes to make holes in the first place. The cliff faces and deep gullies of St. Abbs Head act as the perfect home for seabirds and you’ll usually see kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots crowded into every available space, but it’s the puffins that are the biggest draw to the site. Although Scotland is famed for its puffin colonies the largest in the world is in Iceland which contains over four million birds. They nest in screes and rocky places. The kittiwake is easily recognised by…oh, never mind, let’s stick with those dang puffins. West Coast Tours for the Treshinish Isles: Over two hours will be spent on Lunga where you can visit the puffin colony, then time on Staffa and two hours on Iona to explore and seek out the rare corncrake. During the breeding season the males grow a bright orange coating over their bills but it flakes off once the season ends. One of the great things about the seabird centre is they’ve installed interactive cameras on the Bass Rock and a couple of other islands in the Firth of Forth so you can watch the puffins go about their business without disturbing them in any way. The islands of St. Kilda which lie around one hundred miles west of the Scottish mainland were once a prime puffin hunting ground as the fatty meat was a prized source of food. Other than the puffins, the highlights of the Treshinish Isles are Staffa and Fingals Cave which is an incredible sea cave formed entirely by hexagonal columns of lava. There are some puffins about wherever there are suitable nesting habitats as described – for instance at Fowlsheugh (RSPB Reserve) below Stonehaven and also the cliffs by Muchalls, above Stonehaven – just two more slightly puffinous places on this east coast stretch. Jess has wanted to see puffins for a very long time, so when the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick, Scotland, offered us a trip on one of their bird watching tours at the start of puffin season, naturally we leapt at the opportunity. Best seen during the late afternoon and early evening, when not feeding or incubating, puffins are gregarious gathering together in “rafts” close offshore, or spending time together on the slabs and tussocks outside their nests. No, but they did see puffins, at a colony in Wales and at another in Iceland, pick up twigs and scratch themselves in otherwise awkward places. …ever wondered why puffins and other auks flap their wings so fast? Puffins are not easily to see around Skye, normally most visible early spring (March – April). After experiencing their silent hunt at sea I was surprised at how noisy they are in their clifftop burrows and it seems apt that the collective noun for a group of puffins is a ‘circus’. It’s a black guillemot. Here we go. (Oh, wait. (There can be no other explanation if you’ve gone this far down the page.) (Find out more at North Berwick’s Scottish Seabird Centre.). You can take a tour deep inside the cave (for a small fee) and there’s a lovely walk around the peninsula that surrounds it which is another favourite spot for seabirds to bob about in the sheltered waters. It was even said to be one of Queen Victoria’s favourite places in the whole of Scotland. are usually found in remote areas of Scotland which are difficult to get close to, so if you’re hoping to see them you might like to think about taking a decent pair of binoculars with you – unless you visit the Scottish Seabird Centre which I’ll cover next. Smoo Cave is one of the biggest sea caves in the UK and it sits at the end of a long, steep-sided gorge. A tour to the Isle of Staffa lasts four hours and will cost you £25. At that point the visitor will say ‘So where are the puffins?’ Small wonder the guillemots get jealous. I’m Craig, I live in Edinburgh and I’m obsessed with tourist attractions. How to See Puffins in the Treshnish Isles of Scotland. Must See Scotland is the uniquely honest and independent guide to Scotland that no-one pays us to write. Their favourite food is sand eels, herring and capelin (a sprat-like North Atlantic fish). Tysties are inconspicuous and tend to be in small groups. Telephone 01950 477384. ?. One other point about puffins. No, I don’t mean it flies feet first, I just mean the orange is surprisingly conspicuous. The cliffs in this part of Scotland are steep and crumbling due to the different types of rock formations and they’ve become a bit of a tourist attraction in their own right due to the number of seabirds that call the monumental sea stacks their home. If you visit keep that thought in mind as you’ll get the best views in the early morning when they set off and the early evening when they return but don’t worry too much if you miss them as you’ll see thousands of other birds throughout the day. There are a couple of National Trust for Scotland designated paths in the nature reserve which run close to the cliff edge and others which circle a nearby loch, but please note that the NTS make a point of asking you not to explore the rest of the site as you could upset the breeding pairs. Sounds like a lot of hard work. There they are called ‘tammy norries’ – a word, may I say, that I have only ever read in tourist guides and, for all I know, could originally have been invented by a guidebook writer and been repeated ever since. Lunga is verdant for outstanding wildlife experiences. Westray is the best of the Orkney islands on which to see puffins. I think I’ve cropped out the razorbills.) Kilda Cruises for St. Kilda tours: Visit one of the most important seabird colonies in Europe. To be honest I’d probably recommend Faraid Head for a visit even if there weren’t any puffins as the view across Balnakeil Bay is spectacular. St. Abbs Head in Berwickshire. 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