Where To See Puffins On Orkney

The Orkney Islands are alive with wildlife, and few birds capture the attention quite like the puffin. Known locally as the Tammie Norrie, the puffin has a long connection to these islands. Its Latin name, fratercula, meaning ‘little brother’, is thought to link it to the Celtic monks who once shared their island homes with these same birds. Orkney has a way of making you feel that the wildlife and the history have always belonged to each other.

Puffins can be found around the islands from early May until mid-August, with June being the prime month to visit. In May and June, the birds are reconnecting with their partners and settling into their nest burrows. By June and July, you will start to see them returning to those burrows with beaks full of sand eels, feeding the chicks hidden below. If you are lucky, you might even spot a puffling, a young puffin in its first black-and-white plumage, emerging from the nest for the first time. By August, the cliffs are silent, the Tammie Norries are back out at sea for the winter, and you are already planning next year’s visit.

The good news is that knowing where to look means you can spend your time with the birds rather than searching for them. Orkney has a handful of sites where puffins are reliably found each season, spread across the Mainland and the outer islands. This guide covers all of them and includes what each place is like, the best time to visit, and how to get there. Having spent time with Orkney as my home, I have had time to explore where you can find these little characters.

Why is Orkney a good place to see puffins?

Orkney sits at the meeting point of the North Sea and the Atlantic, and the richness of the surrounding seas supports one of the finest concentrations of seabirds anywhere in Britain. The puffin colonies here are spread across the archipelago, with some on the mainland and some on the outer islands. The variety of landscapes they occupy, from the high red sandstone cliffs of Westray to the tidal reefs of the Brough of Birsay, gives Orkney a range of puffin experiences that rewards more than a single day’s exploring.

What makes Orkney particularly interesting as a puffin destination is that the birds are genuinely woven into the fabric of a visit. You are rarely making a special trip to a wildlife reserve and then returning to the main business of sightseeing. In Orkney, the puffins tend to appear at the cliff edges and headlands you are already visiting for their history, their geology, or their views. The Brough of Birsay, which you cross to see its Norse and Pictish remains, has puffins on the seaward cliffs.

That said, if you are visiting Orkney specifically for the puffins, Westray is where to focus. Castle o’Burrian holds the largest puffin colony on the islands, and Noup Head adds gannets, spectacular cliff scenery, and the chance of cetaceans offshore.

Castle o’Burrian, Westray

Castle o’Burrian is the place to go on Orkney if puffins are your priority. This striking sea stack sits on the east coast of the island, a short distance from the Rapness ferry terminal, where the boat from Kirkwall arrives.

If you are visiting Westray for the day, the cliff-top parking area for Castle o’Burrian is clearly marked on the right as you drive away from the ferry, and it is well worth stopping before you go anywhere else.
A short walk along the clifftop brings you level with the stack, and from here the scale of the colony becomes clear.

This is the largest puffin colony in Orkney, and in June the birds are everywhere: on the clifftop turf, on the ledges of the main cliff face, and most spectacularly on the stack itself.

The main colony is on Castle o’Burrian, where the puffins pack onto every available ledge and crevice, and the antics of the birds as they come and go from their burrows, jostle for position, and return from fishing trips with sand eels are endlessly entertaining.

The clifftop path here is safe for careful walking, but as with all cliff edges on Orkney, there are no barriers, so it pays to keep your wits about you, particularly if you are absorbed in watching the birds rather than the ground.

The combination of sea stack, Atlantic backdrop, and the sheer number of birds makes Castle o’Burrian one of the most rewarding puffin sites in Scotland, and it is certainly the most accessible of Westray’s two main colonies.

Brough of Birsay, West Mainland

The Brough of Birsay is a tidal island off the north-west coast of the Orkney Mainland. A causeway connects it to the shore, but it is only exposed for a few hours either side of low tide so you do need to check the tide times before you go and keep a close eye on them while you are there.

Once across the causeway, a path leads up to the lighthouse at the top of the island. The Brough is best known for its Norse and Pictish remains. The ruins of a Norse village and an early Christian settlement are nestled close to the causeway in a sheltered dip.

From the lighthouse, the seaward side of the island reveals its other appeal. The cliffs here are deeply cut by geos, the narrow coves typical of Orcadian coastal geology, and puffins nest along the cliff faces above them.

The key to finding them is to look across to the cliffs rather than straight down. The geos mean that the birds on the far side of each cove are far easier to see than those directly below you, and scanning across the cliff faces brings the puffins into view.

The Brough of Birsay is not Orkney’s most reliable or densely populated puffin site, but it adds something that the Westray colonies don’t: the combination of the tidal crossing, the Norse history, and the Atlantic cliff scenery makes a visit feel like a proper adventure.

If you walk along the cliffs past the Whale Bone towards Northside, you will find a second small colony at Whitallo Point.

Marwick Head, West Mainland

From the Brough of Birsay, the high cliffs of Marwick Head are clearly visible to the south as a long dark line of sandstone above the sea that holds one of the best mainland seabird colonies on Orkney. The two sites are natural companions and fit well into a half day on the West Mainland.

Marwick Head RSPB Nature Reserve can be approached from two directions. The longer but more scenic route starts from the beach and lagoon at the foot of the cliffs, following a path up to the Kitchener Monument at the clifftop.

The tower is a memorial to Lord Kitchener, who died when HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German mine off this headland in 1916. The shorter option is to park at the inland car park, which takes you straight up to the monument with very little climbing.

The cliffs at Marwick hold thousands of guillemots and razorbills in the breeding season, and it is among all of this that the puffins sit. They tend to prefer the upper sections of the cliff rather than the crowded lower ledges where the guillemots pack in most tightly.

Look towards the clifftop and the short turf at the cliff edge, and from the viewing area near the Kitchener Memorial, you will often be able to pick them out at a distance. A telescope or a good pair of binoculars makes a real difference here.

Marwick Head is a straightforward visit and one of the most reliably rewarding on the Mainland. The monument gives you an elevated viewpoint over a long stretch of cliff, the path is well maintained, and the combination of the historical resonance of the site and the seabird colony makes it worth more than a quick stop.

Planning your Orkney puffin visit

Orkney rewards at least three or four days if puffins are a priority. A short break of that length gives you time to get to Westray, which really should be the centrepiece of any Orkney puffin trip, as well as exploring the Mainland sites without feeling rushed.

While these are my favourite places to find puffins on Orkney, they can appear almost anywhere, with small colonies on Hoy, Stronsay, Shapinsay and Flotta.

A day on Westray

If you can only manage one outer island, make it Westray. The ferry from Kirkwall to Rapness takes around an hour and a half and runs most days in summer. Check the Orkney Ferries timetable and book your foot passenger tickets in advance, particularly in June and July when the island gets busy.

A full day on Westray gives you Castle o’Burrian in the morning and Noup Head in the afternoon with time to spare. Take a packed lunch as the facilities on Westray are limited outside Pierowall, and you will want to spend as much time as possible at the cliff sites rather than driving back and forth.

If you want to stay overnight on Westray, which is the best way to do it, giving you early morning and evening light at the cliffs when the birds are most active, there is a small selection of B&Bs and self-catering options on the island. Book well ahead for June visits.

You can also travel over to Papa Westray, where there is a smaller puffin colony at RSPB North Hill. You can also see fulmar, great skua and black guillemots here.

The Mainland sites

The Mainland puffin sites can be covered in a day if you are based in Kirkwall. A natural pairing is the Brough of Birsay and Marwick Head on the West Mainland. You can walk out to the Brough of Birsay just before low tide and visit Northside and Marwick Head around the tide times. The distances on Mainland Orkney are not large, and the roads are generally good, but factor in time to stop and look at things rather than simply driving between sites.

Photographing puffins in Orkney

Orkney’s puffin sites each offer something a little different photographically, and the combination of the birds, the red Orcadian sandstone, and the Atlantic light creates images with a distinct quality.

Castle o’Burrian is the most productive site for puffin photography on the islands. The birds on the stack itself make for classic images with clean backgrounds of sea and sky, clear views of the birds’ markings, while the clifftop birds are close enough for portrait work with a 200–400mm lens.

Early morning gives the clearest light and the most activity around the burrows; June offers the bonus of sand eel carrying behaviour, which produces some of the most engaging puffin images of all. The Castle o’Burrian is also good for backlight and sunset photos of the puffins.

The Brough of Birsay suits photography on overcast days particularly well as the diffuse light suits both the birds and the dramatic geo scenery, and the Norse ruins give context shots that are unique to this location.

Marwick Head, with its monument and long cliff views, rewards patient telephoto work from the upper viewpoint. It is also worth spending time on the pebble beach by the lagoon, photographing the eider ducks, swans and waders.

Getting to Orkney and getting around

Reaching the islands

Orkney is easier to reach than many visitors expect. The most scenic route is the Northlink ferry from Scrabster (near Thurso) to Stromness. This is a 90-minute crossing that passes the Old Man of Hoy and gives a dramatic first view of the islands.

Northlink also runs an overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, which is a very comfortable way to travel if you are coming from further south. Pentland Ferries run a faster but more exposed crossing from Gills Bay, near John o’Groats, to St Margaret’s Hope on South Ronaldsay.

Flights to Kirkwall Airport connect from Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, and several other Scottish airports with Loganair. The journey from Edinburgh takes about an hour.If you are on a tight schedule, flying in and out is the practical choice; for those with time and a sense of adventure, the ferry arrivals into Stromness and Kirkwall are experiences in their own right.

Getting around

A car is by far the best way to get around Orkney. The inter-site distances on the Mainland are short, but public transport is limited, and the puffin sites at Marwick Head, and the Brough of Birsay are not easily reached without one. Car hire is available at Kirkwall Airport and in Kirkwall town.

For the outer islands, Orkney Ferries runs services from Kirkwall to Westray. The inter-island ferries take foot passengers as well as vehicles. Booking your place on the ferry in advance is recommended for summer visits, particularly if you are taking a car to Westray.

More puffin watching on the Scottish islands

Orkney’s puffin colonies are among the most accessible in Scotland, but the archipelago is part of a much wider picture. Shetland, a further 50 miles to the north, takes things to another level. Sumburgh Head at the southern tip of the Mainland offers drive-up puffin watching from a clifftop car park, while Noss National Nature Reserve has one of the most concentrated seabird cliff faces in Britain.

Further south, the Scottish Islands, including Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, and the Isle of May, offer very different puffin experiences in very different landscapes. And for visitors who want the largest and most accessible puffin colony in southern Britain, Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire remains the benchmark.