The Island of Staffa - Sculpted by Nature
Home of the World Renowned Fingal's Cave

Staffa (Pillar Island) is a beautiful and uninhabited island (approximately 80 acres) lying 6 miles north of Iona to the west of Mull and about 6 miles north of Iona. It is home to hundreds of seabirds and set within waters teeming with marine life. Staffa is best known for its magnificent basalt columns. Their effect is most overwhelming at An Uamh Binn (Musical Cave) or, as it is more commonly known, Fingal's Cave, which has enthralled and inspired travellers for hundreds of years. Staffa is owned and managed by The National Trust for Scotland. In 2001 it was designated a National Nature Reserve. The name 'Staffa' is thought to come from an Old Norse word meaning wooden building staves (which look similar to the island's basalt columns). The name is a reminder of the region's Viking history, and that people have marvelled at Staffa's basalt columns for centuries. We have made the trip out to Staffa many times - sometimes with the tour operators and sometimes in our own boat The Wanderer. We never cease to be amazed at the wonder of this natural phenomenon especially as each time we go we seem to see something different. Getting up close to the puffins and sitting amongst them to take photographs is great fun and we bring back treasured memories and moments every time.

THE MAKING OF STAFFA:


VIOLENT VOLCANOES

Staffa's spectacular columns are made of a dark grey rock called basalt that formed from a lava flow 60 million years ago. At that time, Scotland and North America were being pulled apart by continental drift to form the north-eastern Atlantic. As the west coast of Scotland was stretched huge amounts of magma (hot liquid rock) rose up through the cracks in the Earth's crust, erupting as lava and volcanic ash onto the surface. This volcanic activity lasted many hundreds of thousands of years and eventually created a 2.2 km plateau of lava and ash.

If you look at the western cliffs of Burg on Mull, you can see more than 20 stacked-up lava flows. Staffa's columns form one of the very lowest and oldest of these flows. Over time, rivers, wind, ice and sea have deeply eroded the lava plateau. Today, only patches of the once extensive basalt flows are left at Staffa, the Treshnish isles and parts of Mull.




GEOMETRIC GEOLOGY

Staffa's amazing basalt columns formed from molten lava. As the 1200° Celsius liquid rock cooled, it hardened, shrank and fractured into regular series of stone pillars. If the cooling pattern had been exactly the same across the lava, the rocks would have formed an exact geometric pattern of six sided columns. But, because they cooled at slightly different rates, the columns vary in size and number of sides.

WAVE POWER

Most of Staffa's sea caves were formed by waves crashing against a soft layer of volcanic ash underneath the basalt columns. However, a formation of Fingal's Cave within the hard layer of basalt columns was slightly more complicated. The waves possible exploited a geological weakness or fault in part of the island. Or perhaps  the soft ash layer underneath was worn away at a time when the sea level was lower, allowing the waves to erode the columns from below.

As you walk across the island you may notice low undulating lines of 'rig and furrow' agriculture and several stone buildings. We do not know for sure whether people ever lived permanently on Staffa or if they simply came here for part of the year. Accounts from the late 18th century mention several people and their livestock on the island. Perhaps they were due to the shortage of land on Mull.

Staffa's largest surviving building is the ruin of a romantic folly or shelter for travellers. It was erected in the early 19th century when tourists were increasingly visiting the island.

TOURISTS AND TRAVELLERS

Fingal's Cave was brought to the attention of the wider world by the famous botanist Joseph Banks in 1772. He wrote: "Compared to this what are cathedrals or palaces built by men! Mere models or playthings, imitations as his works will always be when compared to those of nature."

At the time, the Romantic Movement was spreading across Europe with its emphasis on wilderness, emotion and natural splendour. Staffa, with its wild beauty, soon became one of the 'must see' sights on the Highland Tour. Throughout the 19th century Staffa was visited by a variety of well-known individuals who were all captivated and inspired by the magic of the island. These included Alfred Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria, Jules Verne, Joseph Turner (who painted a wonderfully turbulent seascape of waves crashing in at Fingal's Cave), William Wordsworth, Keats, Johnston & Boswell, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott who wrote: “one of the most extraordinary places I ever behold. It exceeded in my mind every description I had heard of it, composed entirely of basaltic pillars as high as the roof of a cathedral, and running deep into the rock, eternally swept by a deep and swelling sea and paved, as it were, with ruddy marble, baffles all description.”

The island became internationally renowned through Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave). He wrote that the inspiration for this piece of music came through a visit to the island in 1829, while he was standing in the cave listening to the roar of the waves.

Such was the inspiration that every year in June, Mendelssohn's music is celebrated with a Mendelssohn on Mull festival.

BIRD PARADISE

There are important colonies of seabirds that breed on Staffa and as you approach the island during the summer months, you will notice the variety of birds flying to and from the island. The island is the nesting place for a whole range of species including puffins, cormorants, shags, kittiwakes, fulmars, great black-backed gulls, skuas and razorbills.

Puffins are a particular favourite with visitors because of their brightly coloured beaks and clown-like appearance. Puffins nest in burrows and rocky crannies around Staffa where they lay one egg during the summer months. Their main food is san eels which they catch by diving up to 60 m into the sea.

Puffins start arriving between March/April where they form 'rafts' on the water and gradually come ashore to nest. Between May & June, the chicks hatch. In July the parents care for the chick at the nest and in early August the parents abandon the nest. After several days the chick follows. Puffins mass on the sea and then fly off to the mid-Atlantic for the winter.

GETTING TO STAFFA


From Fionnphort and Iona there are two operators to Staffa who leave twice daily for the 3 hour round trip, including approximately one hour on Staffa itself. The journey and timetable is all subject to weather conditions at the time. The boats operate from the 1st of April until the 31st October each year and are operated by very experienced skippers who hold DTI/MCA certificates to carry up to 70 passengers.

On the Attractions page there are links to these operators or you can contact us to help you with organizing your trip to Staffa.

For excursion details and operators go to attractions 

Information provided courtesy of Alastair de Watteville, author of the book 'Staffa' (ISBN: 0 9521517 07) and owner of the island between 1972 and 1978. Additional information supplied by The National Trust for Scotland. Further information available on (0131) 2439300 or (01631) 564710 or visit www.nts.org.uk

Last amended 30/01/2012
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