Farne Islands

Lying between 2.5 and 7.5 km off the fishing harbour of Seahouses, the Farnes are a cluster of 15–28 bare dolerite islands (the count varies with the tide) whose kelp-covered gullies, walls and boulder slopes hold a famous grey seal colony — one of the largest on England's east coast, with around 3,000 pups born each autumn (roughly 2.5 per cent of Britain's annual pup production). The diving is built around the seals: at sites like the Hopper beside Longstone Lighthouse, mischievous juveniles sneak up behind divers to nibble fins, with interaction best from August into November once the year's weaned youngsters grow bold. Centuries of shipwreck add a second act — the German steamer Abessinia (1921) lies broken across the Knivestone at 18 m, the Chris Christensen (1915) sits in 30–33 m off Longstone End, and the bombed WWII steamer Somali rests upright in about 30 m off nearby Beadnell Point — most of them slack-water-only dives in the archipelago's strong tidal streams. This is honest North Sea diving: water of roughly 6–15°C makes a drysuit the year-round standard, visibility typically runs 3–10 m (up to 15–20 m on good late-season days, down to 3–4 m after storms), and summer weekends can still be blown out by wind. Above the surface the islands are a seabird sanctuary managed by the National Trust — about 50,000 puffin pairs were counted in 2024 — and St Cuthbert's 7th-century protection of the eider ducks here is traditionally counted among the world's earliest bird-protection rules; landing on the islands is restricted, but that does not affect diving from boats.

• The Farnes hold one of the largest grey seal colonies on England's east coast: around 3,000 pups are born on the islands each autumn — roughly 2.5 per cent of all pups born annually in Britain, which itself hosts about 40 per cent of the world's grey seals. The National Trust has rangers survey the pup count by drone every autumn.
• Seal interaction peaks from late September into October: pups are weaned within about 18 days, spend a further few weeks around the colony, and the resulting unsupervised juveniles are intensely inquisitive — they approach divers of their own accord, tugging and nibbling fins. The etiquette is to settle, stay calm and let the seals initiate; chasing them ends the encounter.
• The islands are also a major seabird sanctuary: the National Trust's 2024 census — the first full count in five years — recorded about 50,000 puffin pairs, up 15 per cent on the near-44,000 of 2019, despite avian flu killing 938 puffins (and thousands of other seabirds) in 2022–23. The disease was absent in 2024 and the population was declared stable.