14 June 5, 2022The Sunday TimesTravel Focus on Scotland
Few countries on Earth offer such
dazzling wildlife diversity. But where
to target? Jenny Froome is your guide
puffins are often seen in
summer (adult £69,
child £56; sealife-
adventures.com).
Best time to come June to
August, before the sharks
leave for the Azores.
Make a weekend of it
The Sheiling is a pretty two-
bedroom B&B just across the 18th-
century Clachan Bridge at the entrance
to Seil Island. B&B doubles from £200,
minimum two nights (seilislandbnb.com)SPOT PUFFINS IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH
Anchored five miles off the East Neuk of
Fife, the Isle of May is less than one mile
long and 300 yards wide, but home in
summer to a riot of 200,000 seabirds,
including 40,000 pairs of puffins and
their young. Sit still on the cliffs and the
adults will land almost within touching
distance, bills filled with sand eels for
their chicks. Boat trips from Anstruther
spend about three hours on the
island, time aplenty for puffin
sightings, as well as to take
in the remains of 6th and
12th-century monasteries,
and the oldest lighthouse
in Scotland (adult £45,
child £35;
isleofmayboattrips.co.uk).
Best time to come Adults
are feeding chicks from now
until mid-August.
Make a weekend of it The Waterfront
has simple, stylish rooms overlooking
Anstruther harbour, plus cracking
seafood. B&B doubles from £80
(anstruther-waterfront.co.uk)MARVEL AT MINKE WHALES IN MULL
The waters off Mull are a minke’s all-you-
can-eat-buffet of plankton and herring,
sand eel and whiting. Measuring up to
about 30ft in length, Hebridean minkes
can be inquisitive around boats, and will
sometimes “spy-hop”, lifting their heads
out of the water for a better look. Lucky
visitors may even see them breaching clear
of the surface. Several whale-watching
trips depart Oban and Mull, including this
four-hour excursion from Tobermory,
which regularly features minke whale,
dolphin, seal and eagle sightings (adult
£60, child £30; sealifemull.co.uk).O
n my first trip to Scotland
I camped by a beach on Mull
and woke to find an otter
staring me down from the
rocks. In the 25 years since,
I have seen minke whales from a CalMac
ferry, stags from mountain bothies and
puffins only inches from my perch on a
cliff in the Firth of Forth. Scotland is a
wildlife watcher’s dream: from the
Highlands and islands to the waters of the
Moray Firth, we round up the best places
to catch the country’s big ten.GAWP AT GANNETS IN EAST LOTHIAN
Rising out of the North Sea like some
guano-splattered Oz, the Bass Rock is
home to the largest colony of northern
gannets on the planet. It’s only a couple
of miles off North Berwick, so even a one-
hour boat trip from the Scottish Seabird
Centre (seabird.org) is enough for whites-
of-the-eyes encounters with the 150,000
individuals nesting on the 350ft cliffs
(adult £26, child £10); on special
photography trips, gannets
dive right next to the boat
after herring bait (£95,
over-16s only).
Best time to come
April to June for puffins,
gannets until September.
Make a weekend of it
Reopened last year after a
megabucks refurb, Marine
North Berwick stands right by
the 16th green at West Links, staring
toward the Bass Rock. B&B doubles from
£189 (marineandlawn.com)BASK WITH THE SHARKS IN THE
INNER HEBRIDES
You can snorkel with five-tonne, 23ft-long
basking sharks (don’t worry, they’re
gentle giants) in the Inner Hebrides in
summer, but the only operator running
three and four-day trips is fully booked
for 2022 (week-long trips still available;
baskingsharkscotland.co.uk). Can’t wait
until next summer? Head out from Seil
Island with the marine biologist David
Ainsley. His trips to the dramatic Gulf of
Corryvreckan — site of one of the largest
whirlpools on the planet — occasionally
encounter basking sharks. White-tailed
eagles, seals and porpoises are regularly
spotted all year round; minke whales andOF THE
CALL
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‘spy-hop’, lifting
their heads out
of the water for a
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