puffins on the isle of May Scotland

Isle of May in June 2025

This had been booked for a while – to visit the Isle of May and see puffins. I had been there before, probably about 20 years ago, and the puffin population was very sparse then. It was fabulous to see the birds thriving again and catching lots of sand eels.

You can get the boat from Anstruther and the crossing is just over an hour. It’s advisable to book well in advance as the sailings particularly in Summer can fill up quickly.

The boat trip was very short unfortunately, we had to leave the island after only 2 hours due to the tide turning. We had lots of time so we ventured to Leuchars, near St Andrews, in the hope to see some more wildlife and we were not disappointed.