Puffin Island
Puffin Island, known in Welsh as Ynys Seiriol, is a small uninhabited island lying off the eastern tip of Anglesey in North Wales, approximately half a mile from Penmon Point. It sits at the entrance to the Menai Strait and is one of the most ecologically and historically significant small islands off the Welsh coast. The island takes its English name from the large colony of puffins that historically nested here, though puffin numbers have declined dramatically over the twentieth century due to predation by rats, which arrived via shipwrecks and decimated the breeding population. Despite this, the island remains a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and is one of the most important seabird colonies in Wales, supporting significant populations of guillemots, razorbills, shags, cormorants, and lesser black-backed gulls.
The island has an extraordinarily rich early Christian history that gives it its Welsh name. Seiriol was a sixth-century Welsh saint who established a monastic cell on the island, and the ruins of that early medieval monastery are still visible today. A small twelfth-century priory was later built on the site, and the remains of its tower still stand on the southern part of the island, a striking silhouette visible from the Anglesey shore. St Seiriol is one of the two great saints of Anglesey, the other being St Cybi, and a legend connects the two: Seiriol, based on the eastern side of the island, always walked westward to meet Cybi and returned facing east, keeping the sun at his back both ways and remaining pale, earning him the title Seiriol Wyn (Seiriol the Fair). Cybi, walking in the opposite direction, was always facing the sun and became known as Cybi Felyn (Cybi the Tanned). These poetic nicknames have endured in Welsh tradition for over fifteen centuries.
Physically, Puffin Island is a low, grassy plateau roughly 600 metres long and 180 metres wide. Its surface is covered in dense patches of tussock grass, bracken, and nettles, with soil riddled by old seabird burrows. The ground can feel spongy and uneven underfoot. The cliffs on its northern and eastern sides drop steeply to the sea, while the southern shore is somewhat gentler. The air around the island is typically thick with the noise of seabirds — the rattling, growling calls of guillemots and razorbills, the harsh alarm cries of gulls, and the constant background sound of the sea against limestone rock. In calm weather, the island has a profound sense of isolation, yet the mountains of Snowdonia are clearly visible to the south across the Menai Strait, and on clear days the Great Orme headland looms to the east across Conwy Bay.
The waters surrounding the island teem with marine life and are popular with divers and sea kayakers. Grey seals are a regular and delightful sight, often hauling out on the rocks around the island's perimeter or bobbing inquisitively in the water near visiting boats. Porpoises and dolphins are occasionally seen in the surrounding waters. The tidal currents around the island can be strong and unpredictable, a fact that has contributed to several shipwrecks over the centuries. Indeed, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a semaphore station operated here as part of a chain of signalling posts relaying messages between Holyhead and Liverpool, an early form of maritime communication before the telegraph age.
The nearest point on Anglesey is Penmon Point, at the northeastern tip of the island, which is itself a place of considerable historic interest. Penmon Priory, a beautiful and largely intact twelfth-century Augustinian priory with a striking dovecote and holy well, is just a short walk from the point. A toll road leads to Penmon Point where a large nineteenth-century lighthouse stands sentinel. Beaumaris, the medieval walled town with its concentric castle — one of the finest Edwardian castles in Wales and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — lies only a few miles to the southwest. The coastal path along this part of Anglesey offers superb walking with views back toward the island at almost every turn.
Access to Puffin Island itself is strictly controlled to protect its wildlife, and landing is not permitted without special permission, which is rarely granted. However, boat trips around the island depart regularly in the summer months from Beaumaris pier, operated by local wildlife cruise companies. These trips allow visitors to see the seabird colonies, spot seals, and circumnavigate the island at close range while guides provide commentary on both the wildlife and the island's history. The best time to visit is between April and July when seabirds are nesting and most active, and when sea conditions are generally calmer. The Menai Strait and this stretch of coast can be blustery and rough in autumn and winter, making boat trips impractical.
One of the more poignant and macabre chapters in the island's modern history involves the rats. Black rats, almost certainly arriving from a shipwreck, colonised the island and systematically destroyed what had been one of the largest puffin colonies in Wales, raiding burrows and killing chicks and eggs. Efforts by conservation organisations, including the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and Natural Resources Wales, have been made to consider rat eradication programmes modelled on successful projects at other UK islands, in hopes of allowing puffins to recolonise. Whether the puffins will return in numbers to justify the island's evocative English name remains one of the more closely watched conservation stories in Welsh natural history.