Bass Rock

Bass Rock looks white because it is smothered in northern gannets, around 150,000 of them nesting there each summer and coating every ledge. The birds are white with black wingtips, and packed this densely they turn the dark volcanic rock into a pale mass you can see from miles away. It's the world's largest single-rock gannet colony.

You can land on Bass Rock, but access is tightly controlled because it's a National Nature Reserve. The Scottish Seabird Centre runs a small number of guided landing trips from North Berwick in season. Most visitors instead take a boat trip that circles the base for close views of the colony without stepping ashore. If you'd like to land, book well ahead.

You can see Bass Rock from North Berwick, about 30 miles east of Edinburgh and roughly 40 minutes by car on the A198. Boat trips leave from North Berwick harbour, run by the Scottish Seabird Centre. North Berwick is a likeable East Lothian resort town with good independent restaurants and a fine sandy beach.

The Scottish Seabird Centre, on North Berwick harbour, is your gateway to Bass Rock and the wider Firth of Forth. It runs live cameras on the gannet colony and puffin burrows, operates boat trips to Bass Rock and the Isle of May, and has hands-on exhibits about the Forth's marine wildlife. It's the natural place to plan and book a trip.