Puffin Paradise

Remote, unexplored North Rona tickled our spirit of adventure, so we left the Flannan isles and steamed north for nine hours.  North Rona is neighbour to the Faroe islands, and so small she often doesn’t appear on the map.  We didn’t know anyone who had dived there, and no dive reports could tell us what we’d find.  Wind confined us to a sheltered bay, and time limited us to a single dive.  Our party split: some dived through towering kelp forest on the seabed and some explored a shallow wreck.  However, the best North Rona moments were topside, with her puffins.

Nesting on a long-abandoned island, North Rona’s puffins are not used to humans.  Their curiosity brought them close, curved orange beaks checking us out and smiling for the camera.  Undisturbed by the prone cameraman, cute and comical puffin antics played in front of the lens, giving us an hour of wonderful footage, and the privilege of being accepted into their midst.

Here’s a 30 second taster of life in North Rona’s puffin colony.