The basalt sea cave that gave Mendelssohn his overture.
Hexagonal basalt columns, formed as thick lava cooled and cracked millions of years ago, make up almost the whole of Staffa, a small, uninhabited island west of Mull. The best-known result is Fingal’s Cave, a sea cave walled in the same columns, where the swell booms and echoes; a paved ledge, part of the rock itself, runs some way into the cave, so you can walk in. Mendelssohn was so struck by the cave on an 1829 visit that he wrote his Hebrides Overture about it. Puffins nest on the clifftops from around April to early August; landing depends on the sea being calm enough on the day.
The National Trust for Scotland has managed Staffa since 1986, a gift from an American benefactor to mark his wife’s 60th birthday, and the island became a National Nature Reserve in 2001. Boat trips run from spring to autumn out of Tobermory, Iona and Oban.
