Staffa Voyage Tips and guide

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Staffa is an island in the Inner Hebrides, best known for Fingal's Cave. It's an uninhabited wildlife reserve extending 1 km north-south by 500 m east-west, owned by the National Trust for Scotland and reached by boat trips from Mull.

Some 60 million years ago, a great rift developed in the earth's surface that sundered Europe from America and formed the North Atlantic. Lava gushed up from fissures: it was fluid and spread out into vast fiery lakes, rather than heaping up into volcanoes. The lava cooled into a deep layer of basalt, the Thulian Plateau. The Atlantic widened and fractured the plateau into what is now the Scottish Hebrides, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and maritime Canada. It's still widening and the lava continues to well up from time to time, most obviously in Iceland.

As the basalt cooled, it contracted slightly and fractured into hexagonal columns. These became buried by later rock strata (mostly amorphous lavas) but outcrop in several places, most spectacularly at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and at Staffa, where Fingal's Cave is the highlight. The Vikings named this island because the columns resembled the staves or support pillars of their buildings. In Celtic legend, Finn the Gael built a causeway so he could cross to Scotland to fight the giant Bellandonner, but then realised how much bigger his opponent was, and fled back to Ireland. There he pulled a trick that made Bellandonner flee in turn and pull up the causeway behind him.

The present pattern of islands formed 14,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, when sea levels rose by 125 m, offset by land rise as the earth rebounded from the weight of ice. A much larger proto-Mull was then inundated to separate Staffa, Iona, Treshnish, Ulva and the rest of the Mull archipelago. Staffa was barely habitable: one family still scratched a living when the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks visited in 1772, and they gave up the struggle a few years later, so thereafter it was only used for summer grazing. Here Banks became infested by lice but his glowing reports brought a stream of celebrity visitors including Queen Victoria; Mendelssohn penned his Hebridean Overture once he finished upchucking from the boat trip. Visitor numbers soared in the late 20th century when Mull became more accessible, through ro-ro car ferries from Oban.

Staffa had a series of private owners then was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1986, and was declared a National Nature Reserve in 2001.

Boat trips visit in summer, starting from Tobermory or Fionnphort or Ulva Ferry on Mull, or from Iona, or from Oban on the mainland. You may come in your own boat any time, but be aware that Staffa is exposed to the Atlantic with no sheltered anchorage. There are no entry / landing fees.

Boat operators are Staffa Tours, Turus Mara, Alternative Boat Hire and Staffa Trips.

No landings until 10 June 2025 as work is under way to improve the landing area. Non-landing trips may continue.

No dogs anytime.

56.4329-6.33921 Boat Jetty is on the southeast of the island.

From the jetty, a narrow rough trail skirts the base of the cliffs to enter Fingal's Cave. Another ascends steep uneven stairs up the cliffs onto the top of the island. Great care is needed as the basalt surface is slippery when wet (which it usually is), and in summer the trails can be busy, with people trying to edge past each other above dangerous drops. There have been several serious accidents. If your mobility is limited, stay on the boat, which makes a circuit of the main sights.

• Clamshell Cave is in the gully at the boat jetty. It's 45 m long.
• Am Buachaille, "The Herdsman", is the pyramidal islet by the shore trail south.
• 56.4314-6.34142 Fingal's Cave is at the south tip of the island. It's 75 m long and the trail enters a short way.
• Boat Cave is 20 m west, seen on the left in the picture above.
• MacKinnon's Cave is another 100 m west and is 107 m long.
• The Colonnade or Great Face is the cliff of basalt columns on the south tip that Fingal's, Boat and Mackinnon's Cave are set within. It's overlain by amorphous lava almost as deep, resembling a frizzy wig, and the columns stand on a similar basement.
• Top of the island is a plateau, with the ruins of farm buildings and grooves of runrig cultivation. All livestock has been removed so the vegetation is gradually reverting to its primordial pattern, and it's too far from Mull for rats to swim here and lay waste to ground-nesting birds. The highest point is near the south tip, Meall nan Gamhna at 42 m - it's right above Fingal's Cave and you get a sideways view.
• 56.437-6.33783 Goat Cave is to the northeast, and just offshore is a natural arch. They can be reached by a trail across the top.
• Bird life includes fulmars, shags, puffins, great skuas and miscellaneous gulls.
• Marine life includes grey seals, dolphins, basking sharks, minke and pilot whales.

No stores on the island.

Bring all your own food and water.

You may not camp here.

No mobile signal on Staffa.

• Mull is where the boat trip will probably return you. Highlights are the abbey at Iona, colourful Tobermory, and gnarly Duart Castle.
• Giant's Causeway on the Antrim coast is easily reached from Belfast - day trips even run from Dublin - so it's very touristy.