Where to see puffin in the UK

How to find puffin

The commonest mistake with puffins is arriving in the school holidays. By early August most have gone back out to sea and won't touch land again until spring, so a family trip planned for the third week of August finds a cliff full of guillemots and a lot of disappointed people.

The window is roughly April to late July, and the peak is June, when adults are ferrying sandeels back to the burrows and the light lasts long enough for an evening visit.

Puffins are also smaller than almost everyone expects. Photographs flatten the scale; the actual bird is about the size of a pint glass and stands closer to your boots than feels reasonable. On the island colonies — Skomer, the Isle of May — they walk past visitors on the path with complete indifference, which is why those sites are worth the boat fare over a mainland cliff viewpoint where you're looking down at them from fifty metres.

That boat is the catch. Crossings are weather-dependent and get cancelled at short notice, landing tickets on Skomer sell out well ahead in June, and there is no way to fix either on the day. Book early, build in a spare day, and check the sailing before you drive.

If you can't get to an island, Bempton Cliffs is the best mainland substitute — the birds are further away, but the colony is enormous and the viewing platforms are step-free.