COLL and TIREE in SUMMER

MON 8 JULY – SAT 13 JULY 2024

PRICES: from £1795pp

Single supplement: £150 Deposit: £300pp

Max 7 clients. Leader from our experienced team

A delightful holiday visiting two of Scotland’s remotest and most westerly islands. We will pick our sites carefully based on tide, wind and weather enjoying a relaxed paced, natural history exploration two hidden gems!

Basking Shark is an important target, our visit coinciding with the best time for this strange and impressive large fish. The waters around Coll and Tiree hold some of the highest numbers in the UK, and we may also see them from ferries between Oban and the islands. Seawatching can be excellent too, and our ferry journeys may also produce Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater and many auks – excitement all the way!

On Coll we look for Otter, breeding Hen Harrier and also plants of the machair. The island has an abundance of orchids with Pyramidal and Frog being key target species, and Common Centaury, Field Gentian and Grass of Parnassus sought too. A full day here will be spent looking for wildlife from waders in bright summer plumage, to insects of the machair, including rare Great Yellow Bumblebee and very rare Red Shanked Carder Bee.

During our transfer to Tiree we again look out for Basking Shark, cetaceans and seabirds, arriving on a breathtakingly beautiful island with a ‘big sky’ feeling. Orchids again feature on ‘the machair’ along with Lesser Meadow Rue and other sandy specialists. Seabirds, Corncrake, waders, passerines, rare plants and insects - there is so much to see and do on Coll and Tiree! Both islands have a high density of nesting waders, and with young having fledged most will be in large post-breeding flocks, which can harbour rarities. Corncrake will still be present, though this late in the season are harder to find in tall grass being less vocal or territorial having attracted a mate. We do of course still have a chance, taking an optional evening drive, listening out for their rasping calls and for Spotted Crake which has bred previously on Tiree. The holiday begins and ends in Oban, though transfers from Nethy Bridge are also available. No of centres: 2.

Combine with:

SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

Highlands & Wester Ross (p22).

SCOTTISH ISLANDS

Orkney in High Summer (p41), Shetland Wildlife in Summer (p39).