Jun 2 – Jun 21
We traveled around Ireland, Scotland and a handful of island groups to the north and the west of the UK towards Norway or Iceland.
We discovered amazing gardens on an island called Tresco in the Isles of Scilly; amazing history on an island called Iona; thousands of puffins on an Island called Lunga; fabulous birdlife on the Shiant Islands; beautiful scenery in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. We continued to have amazing weather that allowed us to enjoy a number of island hikes or zodiac rides close to majestic rock formations with huge bird colonies. There is a lot to share here so I have divided this section of the voyage into different pages. Some pages are primarily bird photos, so could be kind of boring for you readers.
Isles of Scilly, off southwest corner of Britain
– beautiful Tresco botanical gardens
Iona – Hebrides Islands, Scotland
– the medieval Iona Abbey and nice scenery
Isle of Man, between Northern Ireland and England
– the Drinking Dragon, nice scenery, the Chasms
Isle of Lunga, Scotland
– puffins, puffins and more puffins!
Ireland and Northern Ireland
– Malahide Castle, Wicklow country scenery, Dunluce Castle, Giant’s Causeway
Isle of Skye, Scotland
– Dunvegan Castle, seals
St Kilda Islands, Scotland
– Centuries old settlement abandoned in 1930 as uninhabitable; birds
Shiant Islands, Scotland
– birds and seals
Other Scottish Islands
– a little bit of everything: archaeological sites, scenery, birds