Love our islands

Staffa NNR

Staffa has attracted visitors for centuries. The island is only half a mile long but is home to towering basalt columns, the iconic Fingal’s Cave and a famous colony of puffins in summer. However, with increasing numbers of visitors, we need to ensure that the precious seabird habitats and Staffa’s geological wonders are protected.

That’s why we’re undertaking a large programme of works on the island to make the stairway up to the puffin colony more robust and in keeping with the landscape. We’re expanding the landing jetty to better accommodate groups of visitors. We’re repairing the damaged steps into Fingal’s Cave and restoring island footpaths, ensuring thousands of pairs of boots don’t accidentally erode the delicate ecosystems. We also hope to have a Staffa ranger in the summer months to ensure visitors have a wonderful experience and to promote how they can help us care for the island and its seabirds.

However, this is an extremely tricky project to complete. The combination of winter Atlantic storms and the summer seabird breeding season means we only have a small window of time to carry out the repairs. There is no accommodation on Staffa, so our contractors must commute from Mull each day – an hour’s boat ride each way!

Treshnish Isles

We’re delighted that the National Trust for Scotland is taking over the care of the Treshnish Isles this summer. Lying to the north-west of Staffa, this group of islands are now uninhabited but people lived here from the Iron Age until 1857. There are important archaeological remains including evidence of Iron Age settlements and a ruined medieval castle. Today, the islands are home to large seabird colonies.

The Treshnish Isles are vital habitats for seabirds – we estimate that 20% of the UK’s storm petrel population live here. We’ll work with local boat operators to ensure that rats and mice cannot reach the island and feed upon vulnerable seabird eggs and chicks. We’re also hoping to have a ranger who will help us monitor the islands’ wildlife and promote responsible access to visitors.

Our archaeologists are looking forward to surveying the isles. The last survey was undertaken 15 years ago, and this new survey will update our knowledge on what remains and help us draw up a plan of action to ensure we can actively care for the sites.

St Kilda World Heritage Site

There is no place like St Kilda. Towering out of the storm-tossed waters of the Atlantic Ocean, its cliffs and sea stacks clamour with the cries of hundreds of thousands of seabirds.

A community existed here for at least 4,000 years before the final 36 islanders were evacuated in 1930. This was a challenging place to live; it remains a challenging place to care for and to visit.

The church on St Kilda is a current example of our conservation challenges on these ‘islands on the edge of the world’. For the islanders, the church was the centre of their community and today it continues to provide a warm welcome and place of reflection for many visitors. Unfortunately, an increased frequency in winter storms has caused extensive water damage to the roof. Our conservation plan includes repairing the roof while discreetly modernising the gutters and drainpipes to ensure the increased amounts of rainfall can be shed away from the building.

St Kilda can only be reached during the summer, so this work will need to take place over two years. In addition, the remoteness makes getting materials to the island extremely difficult and expensive – it will cost over £250,000 to fix the roof.