Puffins in Pembrokeshire: When and Where to See Them

The short answer, because it's usually a short question: puffins are in Pembrokeshire from mid-April to late July, the peak is late May to early July, and nearly all of them are on Skomer Island. By the first days of August they are gone — out on the open Atlantic until the following spring — and no amount of driving around the county will find you one.

Everything else is detail, but the detail is what decides whether you actually see them.

When exactly

April — the birds arrive and reclaim their burrows, but early in the month they come and go from the sea and can vanish for days at a time. A trip now is a gamble.

May and June — the sure months. Eggs are laid, both adults are working the burrow, and the paths across the island pass within feet of them. This is when the photographs you've seen were taken.

Late June to mid-July — the best of all, if you can get a ticket. The chicks (pufflings, and yes that is the real word) are being fed, so adults fly in continuously with beaks full of sand eels.

Late July — it ends abruptly. The adults leave first, the young follow at night, and by the end of the month the colony is empty. Our puffin season page tracks this annually.

Where: Skomer, and honestly not much else

Skomer holds one of the largest puffin colonies in southern Britain — tens of thousands of birds — and it is the only place in Wales where you can stand on a path while puffins walk around your boots. The full practical detail is in our Skomer Island guide; the essentials:

Boats leave from Martin's Haven, at the end of the Marloes peninsula. Landing numbers are capped and tickets are sold online in advance by the Wildlife Trust that manages the island — the good summer dates go within minutes of release, so book before you book your accommodation, not after. There's a car park charge at Martin's Haven, a steep walk down to the boat, steeper steps up onto the island, and nothing to buy once you're there beyond a toilet and a shelter. Carry water and food.

Skokholm, Skomer's smaller neighbour, has its own colony and is mostly visited by staying overnight through the Wildlife Trust — a different, quieter kind of trip. Grassholm, the white island on the horizon, is gannets, not puffins; boats circle it but nobody lands. Ramsey is razorbills, guillemots and seals — a wonderful island that people visit expecting puffins and shouldn't.

Seeing puffins without a boat

Harder, and worth being honest about: from the mainland you will see puffins as small fast dots, if at all. Binoculars change that. The best land-based option is the Marloes peninsula circuit out to Wooltack Point, looking across Jack Sound to Skomer — in season there are usually rafts of auks on the water below.

The better boatless option is a round-island cruise: several operators run non-landing trips around Skomer and Ramsey that get you close to the birds on the water without needing a landing ticket. See island boat trips for how those work.

The cancellation problem

Jack Sound is tidal and lumpy, and sailings are called off outright in swell or fog — regularly, all season. If puffins are the point of your holiday, plan more than one possible day and treat the landing as a bonus rather than a fixture. If the boat is off, the Marloes walk is the consolation, and it's a good one.

Where to stay for an early boat

Morning sailings from Martin's Haven reward staying close. Marloes itself is the obvious base, with Dale and Little Haven both an easy morning drive. St Davids works for combining Skomer with Ramsey trips from the other direction. Browse places to stay across Pembrokeshire — and if you're bringing the dog, note that dogs don't land on Skomer, so plan a dog-friendly base where one of you can have a beach day instead.