The day after going to Alnwick, I finally got around to doing something I’ve wanted to do in the previous visits to Northumberland – heading out on a boat to the Farne Islands; a national nature reserve and bird sanctuary with incredible importance. We went with Billy Shiel’s – a well established tour provider who knows how to get close to the islands without disturbing the wildlife.
It was an amazing experience. When boarding the boat, as it was low tide, we had to walk along Seahouses harbour to get to the landing platform. The guide was very helpful about the fact that both my parents walk with sticks, and would need a bit longer to get down the stairs to the boat, so allowed us to go to the front of the queue in order to board. Once on board (the Farne’s Maiden was the name of the boat), we went to the top deck to get seats. I sat next to the rail so I could look out over the side easily. Much to my delight there were also several dogs on board, including two labradors (my obsession with dogs will definitely become a recurring theme on this website).
The water was very calm with just a gentle up/down roll of the boat as we moved over the surface. I love the feel of a boat on a calm/relatively calm sea when you can feel that up/down motion – to me it’s like being on a swing when you’re a child. What I don’t like is the really sloooowwww roll you get on massive boats, because my body doesn’t quite know what to do with that motion, has no idea where it’s coming from really and struggles to adapt. For me, that’s when seasickness kicks in. Anyway, that’s a different story!
When we first headed to the inner islands I could see black cormorant-looking birds, called Shags (go on, giggle, get it out of your system). They don’t have the necessary water-repellent oil in their feathers, so after going fishing they spend their time on the rocks with their wings outstretched to dry off. They often get confused for cormorants because they look very similar, but cormorants are bigger, and also more of an inky black colour.
Shags are listed amber in conservation status, with 27,000 breeding pairs in the UK.
(Photo from the RSPB)
A bit further around we saw some Cormorants. There are 9,000+ breeding pairs in the UK, but 41,000 birds overwinter here. Oddly, despite less birds breeding and overwintering here, they are listed green in conservation status.
(Photo from the RSPB)
Heading around to the area called the “Spindles” I saw lots of other species such as Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Puffins, Gannets, and Razorbills.
Guillemots are some of our most prevalent seabird species in the UK, with nearly a million breeding pairs. I think at least 900,000 of those pairs were attempting to stand on part of the Farne Islands when we headed out!
(Photo from the RSPB)
Razorbills initially look quite similar to the guillemot, but the big tell apart is that razorbills bills are… ironically… blunter than that of the guillemot, and their top coat is closer to black whereas the guillemot is more of a deep brown colour. Razorbills conservation status has not been assessed.
(Photo from the RSPB)
Kittiwakes are a type of gull, listed as “red” conservation status by the RSPB because their numbers are declining, perhaps due to a drop in the number of sandeels, their predominant food source. They come to the UK shores to breed in early summer, before returning to the mid-Atlantic for the rest of the year.
(Photo from the RSPB)
I was delighted to see lots of tiny puffins flying about, although these are also listed as “red” conservation status by the RSPB, again due to dramatically declining numbers over recent decades.
(Photo from the RSPB)
Gannets are an amber listed bird, and some of the largest around the Farne Islands. They fly high above the sea before plunging down into the water to fish.
(Photo from the RSPB)
Moving further around to the outer islands, the skipper told the story of Grace Darling, a young girl from nearby Bamburgh who, with her father, was involved in a heroic rescue mission. Grace’s father was a lighthouse keeper at Longstone Lighthouse, and Grace lived there as well for much of the year. On the night of the 7th September 1838, a luxury paddle steamer named the Forfarshire ran aground on a nearby island after coming into difficulty in a storm. There were more than sixty passengers on board. Grace and her father put to sea in a rowing boat, as they determined it was too stormy for a rescue boat to come out from Seahouses harbour. They found nine survivors in a cranny of rock, and were able to get them all back to Longshore Lighthouse in two trips through the perilous storm. A further nine passengers from the steamer were rescued further down the coast near Sunderland. The rest perished at sea.
Following this rescue, Grace became a national hero. Her youth and “simple life”, coupled with the bravery of the act, appealed to Victorian sensibilities. Queen Victoria sent her some money, and both she and her father were awarded medals for their bravery from the charity that would later become the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (the RNLI). Alongside this, Grace was inundated with letters from around the country, some of which even included proposals of marriage. Sadly, Grace died young, passing away at the age of 26 from tuberculosis. She is buried at St Aidan’s Church in Bamburgh, across the road from what has become the Grace Darling Museum.
Longshore Lighthouse still operates today, but is unmanned. It is solar powered, with energy stored in a battery for when the sun isn’t shining!
Continuing on the trip, further around back towards the inner islands again we saw some Atlantic Grey Seals, sunning themselves on the shoreline. There were about ten lying out of the water, with another four or five gambolling in the surf. Come September though it’ll be a different story; September to December is pupping season, and nearly 5,000 Grey Seals use the Farne Islands as a nursery and place to raise their pups. Watching the seals, it’s amazing how graceful the seals are in the water, compared to just how ungainly they are once they get out onto the beach!
In this area, Grey Seals are able to sun and digest in peace, as the Farne Islands are inaccessible to humans except by boat, and you can only land on the main island with permission. Seals do “haul out” in other places up and down the coast, however. If you see them, give them plenty of space, keep dogs on leads to avoid scaring mother or pup (and potentially separating them) or injury to either part. Seals can and will bite if dogs (or people!) get too close. Like all wildlife, they should be enjoyed at a respectful distance.
(Photo from the Wildlife Trust)
Following all of this, we travelled at a calm pace back towards Seahouses Harbour. It was a lovely trip, and well well worth the £25 it cost to do it. I definitely want to do it again! Billy Shiels also offers other trips, including a slightly shorter 90 minute trip, another where you can land on the main island (National Trust and conditions permitting), and also a Holy Island round trip which takes five and a half hours. If you’re ever up on the Northumberland Coast it is 100% something I recommend doing.
