Seabird and seal islands off the coast.
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
Boats out to the Farne Islands leave the small harbour at Seahouses, a couple of miles of open water off the Northumberland coast. The islands themselves are little more than bare rock and thin turf, but in spring and summer they are home to one of England’s biggest seabird gatherings — puffins by the thousand, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, shags and eider ducks, plus Arctic terns that nest right beside the paths and dive at anyone who gets close, so a hat is worth having. The National Trust looks after the islands and charges a landing fee on Inner Farne, the only one open to visitors, from April to September; the rest are seen from the boat.
Grey seals haul out in large numbers too, with several thousand pups born on the rocks each autumn. St Cuthbert lived as a hermit on Inner Farne in the seventh century and died there; a small chapel today marks the spot. Out at Longstone Lighthouse, Grace Darling and her father rowed out to rescue survivors of a wrecked steamer in 1838, a story told at the Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh on the mainland.
