Qualla: Isle of May https://qualla.com/isle-of-may en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Isle of May https://qualla.com/isle-of-may Isle of May: Introduction https://qualla.com/isle-of-may/ Photo credit AndrewDeAngelo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five miles offshore and just a mile-and-a-half long, the Isle of May is too small to live on year-round and too important to leave alone. In summer it hosts about 200,000 nesting seabirds, the densest puffin colony on the east coast of Britain. In winter the seal pups arrive. The first lighthouse here, a coal-fired beacon kept burning by three keepers and 400 tonnes of coal a year, was Scotland's first permanently manned light, lit in 1635. A 1791 disaster killed an entire keeper's family except the eleven-month-old baby. The island has been a pilgrim's destination, a plague quarantine station, a sonar listening post against U-boats, and is now a national nature reserve. Eleven thousand people visit each year by ferry from Anstruther or North Berwick. Nobody lives there.

Read more: Isle of May on Qualla

Image: AndrewDeAngelo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/gcyp-isle-of-may-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Isle of May: The Coal Beacon https://qualla.com/isle-of-may/ Photo credit Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Forth was busy. By the 1630s, ships heading for Leith, the Forth ports, and Edinburgh's coal trade had no light to mark the mouth. James Maxwell of Innerwick, with John and Alexander Cunningham, set up a coal-fired beacon on the May in 1635 or 1636, paid for by a tonnage levy...

Read more: Isle of May on Qualla

Image: Kim Traynor | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/gcyp-isle-of-may-the-coal-beacon.mp3 0:06 2 full Isle of May: Stevenson's Castle on a Rock https://qualla.com/isle-of-may/ Photo credit AndrewDeAngelo, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1814 the May beacon was Scotland's last remaining privately-owned light. The newly formed Northern Lighthouse Board bought the island from the Duke and Duchess of Portland for 60,000 pounds, and in 1816 Robert Stevenson, founder of the Stevenson lighthouse dynasty and grandfat...

Read more: Isle of May on Qualla

Image: AndrewDeAngelo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/gcyp-isle-of-may-stevensons-castle-on-a-rock.mp3 0:06 3 full Isle of May: Pilgrims, Plague, and Pups https://qualla.com/isle-of-may/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Nicolesabrina at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. The island had a medieval priory dedicated to St Adrian, who according to tradition was martyred here by Vikings in the 9th century. King James IV visited in June 1504 and gave ten shillings to the hermit of May, brought the clerks of the Royal Chapel to sing Mass, and came back ...

Read more: Isle of May on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) Nicolesabrina at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/gcyp-isle-of-may-pilgrims-plague-and-pups.mp3 0:06 4 full Isle of May: The Seabird City https://qualla.com/isle-of-may/ Photo credit John Clive Nicholson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Today NatureScot manages the May as a national nature reserve. The island is closed to visitors from 1 October to Easter to protect the grey seal pups born along the rocky shore. In summer the cliffs and the slopes are layered with puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags, kittiwak...

Read more: Isle of May on Qualla

Image: John Clive Nicholson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/p/isle-of-may-wp/gcyp-isle-of-may-the-seabird-city.mp3 0:06 5 full