Treshnish Isles

The Treshnish Isles are eight uninhabited islands and many skerries four miles west of Mull, cared for by the National Trust for Scotland since 2000 and famous for the seabirds of Lunga, the largest: puffins nest in burrows on the clifftop grass so close that visitors sit among them, guillemots pack the ledges of Harp Rock, and razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars, shags and skuas fill the air from late spring to July. The isles were lived on from the Iron Age until 1857, and ruined townships and the medieval castle of Cairn na Burgh Mòr remain, while the surrounding sea is a Marine Protected Area for basking sharks and minke whales. Reviewers say this is the best puffin watching in Britain. Tips from visitors: boats land on the boulder beach at Corran Lunga and the scramble up is rough and muddy after rain, there are no paths, toilets or shelter, keep behind the rope markers so you do not collapse burrows, and shags nest close to the walking lines.