Skokholm Island

Skokholm is a small island lying 4 kilometres off the Pembrokeshire coast, south of Skomer. Made of Old Red Sandstone, its cliffs rise from 21 metres in the north-east to 49 metres in the south-west. Storms batter the high cliffs and the island’s isolation, creating a safe haven for seabirds. A single rock outcrop near the centre shelters the island’s few buildings. The highest point reaches 55 metres above sea level. The island has been a bird observatory since 1933, the first in Britain, founded by Ronald Lockley. Skokholm holds 15 per cent of the world’s Manx shearwaters and 20 per cent of Europe’s European storm petrels. In 2021 over 11,000 Atlantic puffins nested here, the highest number since the 1940s. Warden John Fursdon once wrote that few places in the world match its continuous biological records. The island was bought by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales in 2006 and declared a national nature reserve two years later. Visitors find a simple landscape of maritime grassland and heath, dotted with salt marsh and patches of till from the last Ice Age. The restored farm cottage built by Lockley and the converted farm buildings offer basic overnight stays. The lighthouse, automated in 1983, still marks the approach to Milford Haven. Seabird colonies of guillemots, razorbills and large gulls occupy the cliffs, while passage migrants such as willow warblers pass through in spring and autumn.