A couple of summers ago I went for the first time to the Northumberland coast. For non-British readers, that’s the northeast coast of England, just south of the Scottish border. I went because, each July, thousands of puffins nest on the Farne Islands, two miles off the coast.  It was one of the best weekend trips I’ve done. In fact, I liked it so much that this month I’m going again.

According to the National Trust, which manages the Farne Islands, 55,000 pairs puffins nest there each year. And given that the islands are tiny, this means that you literally have to watch your feet so that you don’t trip over them. The birds sit just a few metres away, silvery sand eels dangling from their beaks. I went equipped with a long telephoto lens but never even took it from my bag. A 50mm lens was quite enough.

There are also terns who get their kicks by dive-bombing visitors (the National Trust recommends you wear a hat) and large colonies of Atlantic seals. And when you’re done with the puffins, there’s the Holy Island of Lindisfarne just up the beach, and Bamburgh castle.


Getting there
You can’t stay the night on the Farne Islands – you have to stay either in the coastal village of Seahouses (as I did, in a rather outmoded hotel) or in the nearby town of Alnwick, which is probably a better bet if 1970s-style British seaside hotels aren’t your thing. (This year, as luck would have it, I’ll be staying with some friends who have conveniently moved to Northumberland and have a nice spare room and a barbecue set up in the garden.)

To visit the islands themselves, I took a boat trip run by Billy Shiel, +44 (0)1665 720 308. There’s also information on the islands at the National Trust website.

One last tip: when you’re in Seahouses, be sure to go to the Neptune fish and chip restaurant. It may not look great with its white plastic tables, and you can give the sliced white bread a miss if you must (though the girl behind the counter will look astonished and point out that it’s free) but the fish and chips are outstanding. When I was in Seahouses for the weekend, I ate at the Neptune both nights.