Windwick Bay – Grey Seal Pups from the Clifftop
A few hours.
The route
Windwick Bay is a quiet, cliff-ringed bay on the east coast of South Ronaldsay.
Each autumn grey seals come ashore on its beach to have their pups, and from the grass at the top of the cliffs you can watch the white-coated pups feeding and the mothers keeping watch. It's a short, gentle outing, as long as everyone stays quiet and keeps back from the edge.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is House of the Northern Gate, 18 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
South Ronaldsay
An hour or so on the clifftop, sitting quietly in the grass and watching the beach below. Bring binoculars and something warm.
About an hour and a half
Windwick Bay
Windwick is signed off the A961 as you travel south on South Ronaldsay, down a narrow, winding road to a small car park at the head of the bay. A memorial by the car park remembers the destroyers HMS Narborough and HMS Opal, wrecked on these cliffs on 12 January 1918, when 188 men were lost and one survived. From October to December grey seals come ashore here to have their pups. From the clifftops you may see pups suckling, mothers squabbling and bulls squaring up to each other. Watch from above and never go down onto the beach: a frightened mother can stampede into the sea and lose her pup. Walk up quietly, then sit or lie on the grass and don't point. If the adults start watching you or move down the beach, leave. Dogs are better left at home, or kept on a lead. Keep well back from the cliff edge.
If it rains
Open clifftop with no shelter. In rain or a strong wind, leave it for a calmer day.
Where to stay
Photographs by Dionne Clarke and Gary An via Google