Pembrokeshire’s islands are the best reason to come here that most visitors never get round to. Between April and July, Skomer holds one of the most accessible puffin colonies in the world — birds nesting within a metre or two of the footpaths, entirely unbothered by people. Grassholm carries one of the largest gannetries on earth. Ramsey has grey seals, choughs and the tide races. And Caldey has a working Cistercian monastery.
All of them need a boat, and the boats need booking and good weather.
Where from: Martin’s Haven, at the end of the Marloes Peninsula, in the west of the county.
What it is: a 300-hectare island run as a national nature reserve, and one of the most important seabird sites in Britain. It holds a very large puffin population, the world’s largest colony of Manx shearwaters — several hundred thousand pairs, which come ashore only at night — plus razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and short-eared owls hunting in daylight.
The puffins are the draw. They nest in burrows beside the paths, and between roughly April and late July they are present, tame and photographable at very short range. By August they have gone back out to sea.
How it works: boats cross the short but fast tidal water of Jack Sound in the morning, and you spend several hours on the island walking the marked paths. There is a landing fee as well as a boat fare. Landings are weather-dependent and Jack Sound is unforgiving, so trips are cancelled with little notice.
Booking is essential and it is competitive. Places are limited to protect the island. Book as far ahead as you can, and have a fallback day.
There are also round-island cruises that do not land, which run more often and are a good deal easier to get on.
Skomer’s smaller neighbour, also a nature reserve, with storm petrels and shearwaters and a lighthouse. Day landings are limited; most visitors go for overnight stays in the island’s accommodation, which needs booking well ahead.
Eighteen kilometres offshore, and one of the largest gannet colonies in the world — tens of thousands of pairs on a rock that turns white with them. You cannot land; boats circle it, and the sight and the smell together are memorable.
Trips run from Martin’s Haven and St Davids in summer and take several hours in open water.
Where from: St Justinians, near St Davids.
What it is: an RSPB reserve across Ramsey Sound, with high cliffs on its western side, grey seals in large numbers — the pupping season from late August into autumn is the spectacle — choughs, and some of the fastest tidal water in Britain in the Sound itself, including the Bitches, a reef that generates standing waves.
Landing trips allow several hours ashore on waymarked paths. Round-island trips in fast boats are shorter, cheaper and considerably more exciting, going through the tide races.
Where from: Tenby harbour.
What it is: an island with a Cistercian monastery whose community still farms it and makes perfume, chocolate and shortbread. There is an abbey, a medieval priory church, a lighthouse, a beach and a village. It is a twenty-minute crossing and a gentle half day rather than a wildlife expedition.
Boats run from Easter to October, Monday to Saturday, and not on Sundays out of respect for the community.
If the boats are cancelled — and they are, regularly — several of the best wildlife sights here are visible from land.
Seals can be watched from the clifftops at Ramsey Sound, Strumble Head, Abereiddi and along the north coast, particularly in the pupping season.
Seabirds crowd the Elegug Stacks on the Castlemartin coast between April and July, free and from a viewing point a few metres away.
Choughs are common on the cliffs.
Porpoises and dolphins work the tide races and are often visible from Strumble Head, which is one of the best sea-watching points in Wales.
Weather. Everything here is at the mercy of it. Boats do not run in swell or strong wind, and cancellations are common. Build flexibility into the plan and do not save the island trip for your last day.
Booking. Skomer landings need booking well in advance and sell out. Caldey and the round-island trips are easier.
What to take. Warm layers regardless of the forecast, waterproofs, sturdy shoes for the island paths, food and water — Skomer has no shop and only basic facilities. Binoculars if you have them, though you will not need them for the puffins.
Landing. Skomer’s landing involves a flight of steps up from the boat, and the sea state can make the transfer awkward. It is not ideal for anyone with mobility difficulties.
Seasickness. The Sounds are tidal and lively even on a calm day.
Dogs are not allowed on the nature reserve islands.
April to July for puffins on Skomer — late May and June are the peak.
April to July for the seabird cliffs generally.
Late August to October for grey seal pups, which is the other great Pembrokeshire wildlife spectacle and is best watched from the mainland cliffs.
Any time from Easter to October for Caldey.
A little context makes the trip better. Skomer, Skokholm, Grassholm and Ramsey sit at the western edge of Wales in some of the fastest tidal water in Britain, and that combination — no ground predators, deep cold water full of fish, and steep cliffs — has made them internationally important seabird sites.
Skomer’s Manx shearwater colony is the largest in the world: several hundred thousand pairs, which spend the day at sea and come ashore only in complete darkness to avoid the gulls. If you stay overnight in the island’s accommodation you hear them, which is one of the strangest natural experiences in Britain.
Grassholm’s gannets number in the tens of thousands of pairs and are visible as a white rock from several kilometres away.
Ramsey’s grey seals produce several hundred pups a year in the coves below the cliffs, and the Sound between the island and the mainland runs at up to six knots, generating the standing waves at the Bitches that make the round-island trips exciting.
Skomer landings are limited by design and sell out; book as early as the season opens, and treat any island day as provisional. The boats are cancelled for swell as often as for wind, and a calm day in the harbour can still mean an unlandable sea at the island.
The mitigation is to book early in your stay rather than late, so there is time to try again, and to have the mainland alternatives ready: the Elegug Stacks for seabirds at close range, Strumble Head for seals and porpoises, and the round-island cruises, which run in conditions that stop landings.
For anyone who has not done it: you land at a small jetty, climb a flight of steps, and are given a short briefing. From there you walk a network of marked paths for four or five hours. The puffins are on both sides of the path, often within a metre, standing outside their burrows and entirely uninterested in you. There is no cover, no shop and one basic building.
Take food, water, a warm layer and waterproofs regardless of the forecast, and wear something you do not mind sitting on the ground in.
Roughly April to late July, with late May and June the best. They leave for the open sea by August.
By boat from Martin’s Haven, at the end of the Marloes Peninsula. Landings are limited and need booking well ahead.
Round-island cruises run and give you seabirds from the water, but the close views on the footpaths are the point of landing.
A working Cistercian monastery, a medieval priory, a lighthouse, a beach and a village. Boats run from Tenby, not on Sundays.
No. Everything is weather-dependent and cancellations are common. Do not plan an island trip for your last day.