Fingal's Cave

Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa has been on my bucket list for a good few years now, and I was in my element when we finally saw it in July 2025. The uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides is not an easy place to get to, and it took some planning and good luck with the weather to be able to visit. It is obviously only accessible by boat and we booked a full day tour with West Coast Tours, starting from Oban. The ferry took us to the Isle of Mull and from Tobermory we took a Staffa Tours boat trip to Lunga on the Treshnish Isles, then on to Staffa to see the glorious Fingal's Cave.

It was late afternoon when we arrived on Staffa and we approached Fingal's Cave from the west, so we got to have a peek inside the geological marvel before landing on the island on its east coast. The landscape was like nothing I have ever seen before as we approached the boat landing. It is formed from hexagonally jointed basalt columns frozen in time by a lava flow which occurred 66 million years ago. The basalt columns were the result of the solidified lava cooling and contracting the igneous rock in a process known as columnar jointing. The formation is similar to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland which may have been linked to Staffa by the same lava flow.

Legend has it that the two locations were the endpoints of a bridge built by Irish giant Fingal (or Fionn mac Cumhaill) to enable him to cross the Irish Sea and fight his Scottish rival Benandonner. Fingal disguised himself as a baby, pretending to be his own son, which terrified his opponent as he believed Fingal to be colossal. Benandonner fled back to Scotland in terror, destroying the bridge behind him.

The cave was originally named 'An Uamh Bhinn' which is a Gaelic name meaning 'The Cave of Melody'. The acoustics of the cave are said to be outstanding, but sadly we didn't get the chance to try them out as we were too chicken to venture too far into the cave. It is quite the drop into the sea and there are no barriers at this point with lots of people milling about, so we admired it from afar. We could hear someone braver than us giving it a go though! Hats off to them.

Visiting Staffa is a proper little adventure and everything about it made for an exciting trip. From the boat trip over the Atlantic Ocean, to seeing rare wildlife on the water and finally being treated to the incredible close up views of the geology, it definitely lived up to expectations. If we had more time we might have explored the top of the island too, to see the Puffins who live there but we still got to see them when we landed on Lunga as part of the same tour. We also caught sight of Black Guillemot, Manx Shearwater, Minke Whales and Dolphins. A magical day out.

Thanks to Kat Chaganis for the photo from deeper inside the cave. You're braver than us.