Visiting the magical Island of Staffa - a natural wonder of the world

Last tuesday we managed to tick a major item of our bucket list when we finally made a trip to the Island of Staffa.

Staffa is an island situated of the West Coast of Scotland. It is famous for its amazing hexagonal columns of volcanic rock. When this type of lava cools it can take on different forms depending on what conditions it is under (temperature, pressure, etc). When the conditions are right it forms in these stunning hexagonal columns, and they can be found all over the island of Staffa.

The island is quite small and uninhabited. To get there we had to travel from Oban on the mainland in Scotland, to the Ilse of Mull (a one hour ferry trip), and then drive to Fionnport on the other side of Mull (an hours drive). From Fionnport, we were then able to catch a tour boat out to the island (an hours trip again).

The main attraction on Staffa is Fingal's Cave - named after a mythical giant. The sea cave is lined with the beautiful formations and is world famous. It was even the inspiration for Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, which he composed after visiting the island back in the 1800s ! Whats really cool about the cave is that it is quite safe to walk into it !

There is a small jetty on the island which the tour boat can drop you of at, if the weather conditions are ok. We were in luck, and were able to get off the boat and explore the island for an hour or so.

Getting to Fingal's Cave was a lot easier than I expected. From the jetty you have to walk along the side of the cliffs, however the hexagonal columns make very good steps. And you simply walk along a hexagonal path of volcanic rock along the side of the island. A rope has been put in place to hold onto, and surface treatment has been put on the rocks to make it not slippy - but it was really easy !

As can be seen above, you can then walk right into the cave.

It was utterly stunning to see - the rock formations were just incredible. My wife and I have wanted to go there for so long - and we were delighted to have finally made it. And really surprisingly the mobile phone signal on the island and in the cave was really good, so my wife was able to video call her mother from inside the cave !

In the pic above you can see Fingal's Cave on the right, and then another small cave on the left. The tour guide was explaining that its possible to get in the other cave via a small boat (but not easy), but once you are in, it opens out into a really large cavern. We didnt get to see that, but that must be incredible to see.

As said, these rock formations can be seen all over the island. The view above was just above the jetty. I just love how it has all twisted. I assume that happened as it cooled.

And the beautiful formation above was just a few metres of shore from the jetty and the side of the cliffs.

We also had a wander along to this little cove. The white oval on the grass is a seal pup, and you can see a few more in the background on the shingle beach just by the shore. As the island is uninhabited, its quite popular with seals.

I have to say we were all pretty stunned by how beautiful the island and the cave was. As soon as we got back from the trip we pretty much said we'd have to go back again. It was so amazing.

We also enjoyed the ride over on the boat. It was quite powerful and could move at a fairly decent speed. The sea was choppy which made the ride quite fun, but not choppy enough to make anyone seasick ! They often see whales and dolphins when doing the trip out, although we didnt see any.

I cant quite emphasize how much we enjoyed this trip. If going again, I would try and find a trip that gave us longer time on the island. There was more to see, and 1 hour wasnt enough. 2-3 hours would be more ideal.

The cave was so magical that we went back to see it again before we had to leave. The purple colour of the rocks and the sea-green colour of the water was quite mezmerising.

The whole time we were there I could hear Mendelssohn's overture in my head. I'm also a fan of classical music, and it was through hearing that piece of music for the first time back in the 1980's that I first found out about the island - and have wanted to go ever since !

The whole experience was awesome, including the trip in and out on the tour boat. I cant recommend this highly enough. If you ever get the chance, you just have to do it !