Top 10 best British islands: No. 7 - Staple Island

Staple Island, Farne Islands, Northumberland, England

We set sail on Billy Shiel's Glad Tidings IV on a two-stop voyage to the Farne Islands, disembarking at Staple Island and Inner Farne. Our vessel was crammed with photographers, each trying to outdo the other with the size of their telephoto lenses. Collectively we had one aim: to see and photograph the puffins. For those less star-struck, there were also a few thousand terns, guillemots, shags and kittiwakes to observe.

As we neared the islands, increasing numbers of birds began to plop into the water, streaks of puffins criss-crossed the sky in mechanical flight, and the entire landscape fizzed with creatures energetically going about their business. 

Hopping onto Staple Island, we were thrust among the nesting seabirds – a low rope fence being their only protection. You couldn't get closer to a wild animal without holding one. Every colour, texture and marking was apparent as they preened, ate, built nests, took-off, and landed right in front of us. Undoubtedly the Farne Islands are a paradise for photographers as much as for birds.

Staple Island is in the Top 10... for being home to one of the most extraordinary wildlife experiences in Britain.

Dan's favourite islands 2011

1. Farne Islands
This has to be one of the greatest wildlife experiences in the UK. Where else can you get as close to nesting puffins, razorbills, shags and kittiwakes? On Inner Farne, at the right time of year, arctic terns dive-bomb your head while their fluffy offspring run under your feet. But the birds are only half  the story – the human behaviour is just as weird and fascinating.

2. Lindisfarne 
Holy Island, tidal island, distiller of mead, home to a storybook castle and beacon for tourists from miles around. Being cut off by the tide twice a day gives the island its sense of magic and isolation. Staying overnight transforms the experience to a slower, more spacious and quieter understanding of the place, where faith and history thrum beneath the coffee shops, rambling outfits and rushed daily visits.

3. Darnet Island

At first, Medway doesn't sound quite as exciting as the Shetlands but I guess it depends on what you're doing there. We were taken out of our comfort zone on a canoe trip and a spot of wild camping on one of Medway's many islands: Darnet Island. Next to the shipping lane, a power station and amidst a ring of busy towns it's amazing where you can find wildness and the thrill of adventure. Thanks to our guide Dave Wise we discovered the incredible scent of sea wormwood, the comfort of sea purslane as a mattress, the haunting interior of Darnet Fort, the difficulty of pinhole photography and the joy of waking up on your own secluded island.

Northumberland - day 5 - north coast

Ross Back Sands

Rain over the Farne Isles

Bamburgh Castle

In bright sunlight we drive to secluded Ross — glorious walk through the farm pasture to rippling dunes — on the way, a truly disdainful look from a farmhand on a quad bike — wide open, endless sandy beach beneath fluffy clouds — Bamburgh Castle, as ever, looms in the distance — walk through the cool, shallow water, avoiding washed up jellyfish — Bamburgh offers few options for a quick lunch — enter, then rapidly depart the Copper Kettle tearooms — settle on takeaway from the deli — the sun disappears — we stroll around Bamburgh Castle, from the cricket green through the dunes littered with chrysalises, marvelling at its size — walk along the magnificent beach wondering why more people don't choose Northumberland over Cornwall — um and ah about snorkelling at Harkess Rocks — eventually we suit up and join the eider ducks in Table Bay, one of the many plunge pools along the rocks — bladder wrack streams from the stones, jellyfish tumble in the seaweed — a shivering escape from the wetsuit — warm up in the car — a couple in the car next to us stare out to the Farne Isles, sharing a bottle of wine in plastic cups while getting down to Bruce Hornsby and the Range — we sit for a while ourselves, watching rain fall over the Farnes

Northumberland - day 3 - Farne Islands

Boat trip booths at Seahouses

Sea columns of Staple Island

Longstone lighthouse

Brownsman island cottage

Disembarking on Staple Island

Puffin burrows on Staple Island, looking over to Brownsman island

Staple Island, northeast side

Bird life on the cliff edge

Entry to Inner Farne (The Wideopens in the background)

For the birds or the humans?

 

Thinning vapours, sunny morn — drive the stunning coastal route to Seahouses — join the queue at Billy Shiel's booth — the surprisingly basic Glad Tidings III departs, we board the slightly less basic Glad Tidings IV — we've never seen so many long lenses in one place — the first puffin dips beneath the water, patches of guillemots scatter — a powerful waft of ammonia as we approach Staple Island — a panorama of grey cubist rocks splattered white — guillemots, shags, kittywakes and other gulls sit on stone shelves making a collective din — bobbing heads of grey seals in Brada bay, Longstone — third in line to dock at Staple Island, beneath a canopy of puffins — bedlam: the human life is as frenetic as the bird life — no quarter is given in securing territory for the best shot — within touching distance, shags pant, preen their fluffy young, arrange the nest, call out — the eyes of sand eels (clamped in the beak of a puffin) glint like a row of sequins — sandy burrows among white flowering sea campion — cross the lumpy Staple Sound to Inner Farne — lushly vegetated rise to old buildings — a flurry of arctic terns swoop to feed their chicks either side of the boardwalk — decorative tail feathers fan as its red beak pecks at my head — sun departs, wind rises — cold, tired and jaded — a black backed gull swoops overhead with a chick hanging from its beak — good take away chips and tea from Neptune's on a wind blown bench overlooking Seahouses harbour