Hebrides Sea Safari review: exploring Scotland’s wild west

Perched on a rocky headland, the sea safari tents offer spectacular views across the Sound of Jura

(Image credit: Holden Frith)

published 19 July 2023

Back in 2019, Scotland might have seemed like an odd destination for a newly launched safari. Now, after four years of flight cancellations, strikes and protests – when foreign travel wasn’t banned outright – this Hebridean island adventure is bang on trend.

What you need to know

Glenapp Castle, a five-star hotel on the Ayrshire coast, offers the sea safari as part of a four-night package. Guests spend the first two nights in the castle, enjoying its luxury suites and extensive woods and gardens. Then comes the main event: a private three-day voyage through the inner Hebrides on the hotel’s own boat.

The itinerary can be tailored to the interests of those aboard, adding history, wildlife and whisky according to taste. By day you will zip between islands on a high-power motorboat, jumping ashore to visit the ruin of an early Christian chapel – or a modern distillery. Then, each evening, you will return to a rocky headland on the eastern edge of Jura, where you will sleep in Glenapp’s well-furnished tents, surrounded on three sides by the sea.

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The view from a tent on Jura — The tents are comfortably furnished with hotel-standard beds and linens, but the real luxury is the view

What makes it special?

The Hebridean sea safari may differ in a few key details from the classic African game drive (a boat instead of a 4x4, sea lions instead of the land-based variety), but the call of the wild is still loud and clear. In fact, some of the places I visited when I joined a trip earlier this summer are accessible only by private boat, and get fewer visitors all year than the Serengeti does in a day.

The wildlife was no less plentiful, either. I saw a minke whale, a common sight here, as are Atlantic seals and porpoises. Twitchers will be in their element, too: one small island alone, Ailsa Craig, is home to 40,000 birds, including puffins, guillemots, gannets and razorbills. Further north, I saw an osprey and then a sea eagle chick on its nest, an unnerving combination of youthful plumage and a beak that already meant business.

As on a more traditional safari, we had an expert guide – a marine biologist, who passed on her knowledge and enthusiasm for this landscape and everything that lives in it. The evening we spent with the whale was the most memorable, watching for the waterspout, seeing her back rise through the waves two or three times, then once more, arching more steeply, before she dived back into the deep. Ten minutes later we would see the waterspout again, half a mile away, catching the golden evening light.

Wildlife on the Hebrides sea safari — Clockwise from top left: the sea safari boat moored at Sanda Island, a sea eagle chick, a gannet skimming the waves, the remains of a fort near the Lagavulin distillery, the ruined chapel on Eilean Mor MacCormick and a minke whale off the coast of Jura

Board and lodging

It would be hard to imagine a more perfect campsite, perched on the water’s edge. Each tent, which is large enough to stand in, comes equipped with a proper double bed, linens from the hotel and a candelabra carrying dozens of tea lights – a glimmering treat to welcome you in from the campfire after dinner and a dram. The food is prepared by a chef who travels ahead to prepare a three-course meal in the evening – including mackerel you catch yourself, if you have the time and skill. At breakfast, the bracing full Scottish of haggis, bacon, sausages, eggs and all the usual trimmings is self-recommending.

An evening by the campfire on Jura — Each day at sea ends with a three-course meal and an evening by the campfire with a glass of Jura whisky

A private five-day, four-night Hebridean Sea Safari starts from £15,950 for two people, half board while at Glenapp Castle and all-inclusive while at sea. Holden Frith travelled as a guest of Glenapp Castle on a shorter itinerary. See the hotel website for more information or to discuss bespoke options

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Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.