Did we see puffins on Runde Island in Norway when we were there in May? Yes we did! Bucket List–CHECK!
Do you know about puffins? There’s a popular kids cartoon series named PUFFINS, in which Johnny Depp is the voice of one of the characters. (I had no idea.)
Those are not the puffins I know anything about.
I know about the adorable little black and white birds, that eat fish and nest on cliffs. And live in Norway. (And other places, but we were recently on vacation in Norway, so they got put on my list of interests.)
There are several places you can see Atlantic Puffins in Norway, but Runde Island is often referred to as “Bird Island” because it is such a popular nesting site–for Puffins and thousands of other Atlantic sea birds, including Kittiwake, Gannet, Skua, and hooded Crow. So. many. crows.
And that’s where we went.
Camping on Runde Island
Runde is an island on the Atlantic Coast, in the western section of Norway, about halfway along the coast between Kristiansund and Bergen.
The island itself is a very small place, with an Environmental Center, a few farms, a couple of guest houses, and a small campground if you have a van or RV. We saw some signs posted about hotels “coming soon” so I assume it’s become more popular recently, either from tourism or environmental research, or both. There are no restaurants, no fuel stations, no stores. Just a small gift shop and cafe at the Center, and a tiny shop attached to the Goksøyr campground.
You’ll note in our pictures that the day we spent there was overcast, gray, and foggy. Especially the higher we hiked.
The best time to see puffins is at about 8-9 pm, which is heading toward evening (sort of). The puffins leave their cliff nests in the morning and go fishing all day. Then they come home to their cliff nests in the evenings, sometimes with a mouth full of fish!
So the weather was kind of unfortunate for our pictures. But the Puffins LIVE there, so they were going to be there regardless. Eventually, they had to come HOME. It was just a matter of how good we would be able to see them, and how good our pictures would be. So we didn’t let the weather stop us.
We took the ferry from Alesund to Haried and then drove from there to Runde over several connecting bridges. You come in on the south-eastern tip of the island, and drive around the island’s edge (come off the bridge and go to the right) on the only road, the Fv18. You’ll pass the Environmental Center, some houses, some guest houses, and the Goksøyr Camping parking lot and office.
The trail to the Puffin Cliffs starts just past the camping parking lot on the left (we missed it at first). If you’re not camping, you can drive to the end of the road and there is a public parking lot to leave your car while you’re visiting. Then you can walk back to the trailhead.
If you are camping on-site, the parking lot was low-key but peaceful. (Note: it was off-season.) There were electrical hook-ups, showers, and kitchen facilities right there. The owner was very personable and gave us good directions and a map to get to the cliffs. He was also sympathetic about the busload of high school students that had just showed up. But other than my mom-brain cataloging the notably Norwegian hands-off approach to supervision, I didn’t find them particularly disruptive.
50 other people, spread across an entire island, is not much of a crowd to me, I guess. Alone would have been better, sure. But it was nothing to complain about.
I don’t know if it was the season (early May) or just the country in general, but I didn’t find anything about Norway to be overly busy, crowded, or congested at any point in our trip. We never waited in line for anything. We never waited for a table anywhere. I think we were stuck in traffic one time, and there was an actual accident causing it. Even though our time in downtown Oslo was busy, it was never a rush to cross the street or crowded on the sidewalk.
But I digress…
The camping office also organizes boat sightseeing tours of the cliffs. If hiking is not your thing, you might prefer a boat excursion to see the birds. I say that because…
The Puffin Cliffs Hiking Trail
Here’s the thing that most of the posts I read about Runde Island sort of gloss over…
When you arrive you’re at the bottom of the island, on the north coast.
Puffins nest on the top of the cliffs on the south coast.
So to see them, you have to walk from the bottom of the north side of the island, across the island, to the top of the cliffs, which make up a straight wall on the other side of the island. The “walk” to the puffins is a hike from bottom to top, from one side to the other side, of the island.
Is this hiking the Trolltunga or any of Norway’s other multi-hour, Instagram-famous hikes? NO.
But is it a 20-minute walk around the neighborhood? ALSO NO.
I’m not trying to be over-dramatic here. I’m just managing expectations. The average American does NOT walk their dog this much or stroll with the family this much each evening. {smile} Especially depending on what else you’ve been doing leading up to this little jaunt. Remember–you’re not hitting this trail until 8 pm!
If you’re not in good shape, 20-something, or Norwegian, give yourself at least a comfortable 30-40 minutes for the walk straight to the cliffs. More if you’re planning to take the longer lighthouse loop. Feel free to take breaks if you need them. The trail is more than wide enough for people to easily pass you–ask me how I know–haha.
It’s steep in several sections and just goes up, and up, and UP. But it’s wide and well-marked. It’s even paved in some sections and includes stepping stones, and some stairs (which were more awkward than helpful at one point). People had dogs and baby strollers (with big outdoor wheels) out there too. The trail itself would be considered generally accessible as long as you were ok with the incline.
The first part of the trail is through some sheep pastures (close the gates behind you!), and the second half is all heathered uplands. If you look carefully, you’ll see birds resting (and nesting) in the grass off the trail. So be careful to stay on the marked trail as much as possible! The rest of the area is a valuable habitat area!
In the end, you’re at the top of the cliff, looking down on the birds.
And the Atlantic Ocean. (If it’s not too foggy.)
It’s amazing. And once you can catch your breath, boy, you feel like you’ve accomplished something.
And there are still puffins to see.
Just remember, it’s evening. It’s spring. It’s Norway. And it’s the top of a cliff at the very edge of the Atlantic. Wear your hiking boots, and a warm jacket, and bring a cozy hat in your pocket! (By the way, this is my exact hat. And I wore it constantly. I just cut the pom-pom off. It takes up too much room!)
Seeing Puffins on the Cliffs
You can walk along the cliff edges, but please be careful. There’s only one warning sign for safety. Norway is big on personal responsibility and expects people to just be smart. (I’m a fan too. Of the expectations AND the lack of sign clutter!)
The puffins nest over the edges so you can pick out your spot to watch with some nesting spots in view or you can walk to the viewing platforms. I was exhausted from the hike up, so I staked out a spot with some clear nesting burrows in sight to catch my breath while Mr. Fix-It scoped out the viewing platforms further along. The viewing platforms had better action!
With the uncooperative weather, our cellphone pictures did not turn out much. But our Nikon did fine.
The real thing to remember though, is that we were there to see them WITH OUR EYES. And we did. We weren’t there as professional photographers. We were there as travelers. And we saw them. Lots of them.
And they were adorable. Popping up and down in the grass. In and out of their holes and burrows and the rocks. He would see one, then I would see one, then he would see a different one. Stretching, flapping, swooping in and out…
I didn’t realize they were so SMALL. A lot of pictures you see online are close-ups (nice photography!) and I was captivated by real life that they are rather small. Between 9-12 inches, officially.
Definitely smaller than a ruler, if you’re a visual person and not a numbers person. It adds to the “cuteness” factor when you see them flitting around.
The fog started to burn off while we were up there and the green and gold landscape started to emerge more richly as that strange “midnight sun” twilight period settled in around 10 pm. There are other trail sections and loops to explore while it’s still light if you’re interested. You can definitely spend several hours up there if you want to. Just bring your own snacks and water.
Heading Back Down the Trail
And a note– the Environmental Center has a small cafe. We were told by a local that the fish soup was really good and reasonably priced. But the cafe is closed by 4 pm in the off-season. Plan accordingly, there’s no other food on the island. We had food and snacks waiting in our camper van.
We headed back down the Trail to get a hot shower and some food at our van.
Just a note, if you’re still a bit rubbery-legged, the descent had some challenges as well. It’s steep. Take your time.
The views are magnificent. And there were still people just starting up as we were coming down. Not crowds, but there was no sense of isolation either.
And we had a lovely mini-adventure running into a local farmer sorting his sheep across the trail as we were passing through back down to our campground.
We even offered to help him as he caught a ewe with newborn twins and gave them a quick shot of extra calcium.
He didn’t need our help {smile}. But he and Mr. Fix-It had a nice chat in Norwegian (which we don’t speak) and hand-talk about being sheep farmers, having newborn lambs, and people not closing gates behind themselves.
Some things are universal.
I enjoy the way they use bell sheep to track their flocks across the open, hilly pastures. I supposed back home it would get annoying after a while. We’re not really out there trying to “find” our animals across mountains, islands, and heathers very often. But it’s always nice to see the different farm practices people are using in real life.
When we left the next morning, the fog was back, and very thick. There was pretty much no one else around and we had the road to ourselves. Which we were grateful for, since that bridge is technically a two-way bridge–but not really!
Is Norway on your bucket list?
Be sure to check out a few of my other posts with more travel details…