The 10 best wildlife experiences in Wales

It isn’t just the landscape that is wild and untamed in Wales. These tumbling hills, deep valleys and cliff-framed bays are alive with wildlife, which thrives in sparsely populated quarters such as Powys and Pembrokeshire and in national parks such as Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog (aka Brecon Beacons National Park) and Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri (Snowdonia National Park). 

The shoreline – particularly around Anglesey and in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park – provides a haven for seals, porpoises, dolphins and myriad seabirds, while the hills inland host deer, red squirrels and otters. Overhead, birds of prey such as red kites, tawny owls and peregrine falcons patrol the skies. 

Watching the wildlife is one of the best things to do in Wales, so pack a long camera lens (or your binoculars) and plan a trip around these top wildlife-watching experiences.  

When should I go wildlife watching in Wales?

When working out the best time to visit, keep in mind migration and breeding patterns. Spring (March to May) and fall (September to November) are top times to spot migrating birds on their way to or from their winter and summer feeding grounds. 

The breeding season for seabirds on Wales’ rugged sea cliffs runs from April to September, but many of the species everyone wants to see – such as puffins and razorbills – raise their chicks from April to July. Seals pup along the coast of Pembrokeshire and North Wales from August to November, but adults can be spotted on quiet stretches of shoreline year-round. 

The best season for spotting dolphins in Cardigan Bay is May to September, and harbor porpoises can be seen year-round, joined occasionally by larger whale species. On land, the rutting season for red, roe and fallow deer is from September to November. 

1. Spy seals and puffins on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire

Best for spotting puffins

Offshore from Martin’s Haven on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path hiking route, tiny Skomer Island is a Welsh wonder. Board the first morning boat to bounce across choppy seas to this rocky island off the Marloes Peninsula, where ancient volcanic cliffs punch above the tide-ripped Atlantic Ocean, for some of Wales’ most enjoyable wildlife encounters. 

In summer, pink thrift and white sea campion create a mass of scent and colors on the island’s slopes, and thousands of seabirds ride the breeze and nest on the rocky shores – kittiwakes and peregrines, terns, fulmars, choughs, red-billed oystercatchers – and puffins. So many puffins!

Some 48,000 puffins gather on Skomer from May to July, making this the best spot in Wales to get close to these loveably comical birds, with a wing beat so fast it looks like someone inserted the wrong batteries. You can follow a 4-mile (6½km) circular trail around the island for close-up views of puffins preparing their nests and bringing sand eels to their newly hatched pufflings. 

Skomer is also the nesting ground and summer home of some 350,000 pairs of Manx shearwaters – the world’s largest colony. Head out at night to hear their ghostly cries as they swoop down to their burrows on the ground under the cloak of darkness.

Planning tip: Book months ahead to stay overnight at Skomer’s simple hostel; the self-catering accommodation is basic, but you’ll get to experience Skomer at its quietest once the day-trippers have departed. Regular daily boats depart Martin’s Haven for Skomer Island from April to September; pre-book online at WelshWildlife.org.

2. Encounter dark skies and dolphins around Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) and Cardigan Bay

Best marine mammal encounter

Accessible by boat from the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula near Porthmadog, Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) offers a serenely celestial experience. This tiny island, just 2 miles (3¼km) off the mainland, gained worldwide recognition as Europe’s first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in 2023; if you stay overnight, it’s probably the best place in Wales to gaze up at the cosmos.

But keep your eyes on the sea by day, particularly on the crossing from tiny Porth Meudwy, and on walks along the clifftops around Mynydd Enlli. Pods of Risso’s dolphins cruise the waters of Bardsey Sound, and they often can be spotted – alongside porpoises and seals – on wildlife-watching cruises to Ynys Enlli with Bardsey Boat Trips. 

Detour: There’s more cetacean spotting in Cardigan Bay to the south of Ynys Enll. These wildlife-rich waters are home to Europe’s largest population of bottlenose dolphins – easily distinguished from Risso’s dolphins by their long, bottle-shaped snouts. 

Spot them playing in the frothy surf on a high-speed rigid-hulled inflatable boat tour from St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire with A Bay to Remember. As you cruise the bay, you may also spot snoozing Atlantic seals draped over rocks, shy harbor porpoises frolicking in the waves, and circling seabirds preparing to dive.

3. Watch murmurations of starlings in Aberystwyth

Best natural spectacle 

Aberystwyth is best known for its ruined castle – which played a key part in the shared history of England and Wales – but in the fall and early winter, travelers gather for a very different spectacle. As the temperatures dip, thousands of dark brown, speckled starlings congregate along the shoreline, creating surreal undulating patterns as they move in synchronized flocks known as murmurations.

Watching the ever-shifting organic forms created by the starlings is rather hypnotic – an effect exaggerated by the west-facing sunset views. Aberystwyth’s Royal Pier is the center of the action; scan the skies around the pier and along the prom as sunset approaches and the starlings return from a day’s feeding, swirling through the air to stay safe from predators. 

4. See rare red squirrels at Plas Newydd on Anglesey 

Best rare mammal encounter

Tying in neatly with the theme of native Celtic identity clinging on in remoter corners of Great Britain, Wales – like Scotland – is home to rare red squirrels. These shy mammals were displaced from many parts of the UK by gray squirrels imported from America in the 19th century, but small populations cling on in locations such as Anglesey, Clocaenog Forest and mid-Wales.

Rather ironically – as it was the owners of big country houses that first brought the plague of gray squirrels to the UK – one of the best spots to see red squirrels is the 16-hectare (39½-acre) garden of Plas Newydd, a Grade I–listed mansion on the shore of the Menai Strait on Anglesey. Around 100 of these red-headed charmers roam the delightful grounds of this National Trust property. 

5. Spot red kites and other raptors in the skies

Best for fans of birds of prey 

The skies over Wales buzz with birds of prey, from dainty sparrowhawks and merlins to speeding peregrine falcons and stocky tawny owls. But one predator that you’ll see all over the country is the distinctive red kite – instantly recognizable by its angular wedge of tail feathers. 

For guaranteed sightings, head to one of the feeding stations set up to support wild populations of red kites, such as the Llanddeusant Red Kite Feeding Station in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, with a dedicated hide for birders. 

There are more feeding stations at the Bwlch Nant yr Arian Visitor Centre near Aberystwyth, and at Gigrin Farm near Rhayader. To see red kite behavior without the influence of humans, head to the RSPB Cwm Clydach reserve in Clydach, an area of riverside woodland ringed by pastures to the north of Swansea. 

Detour: The next best thing to seeing birds of prey in the wild is dropping into the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire, where you can watch native birds such as eagles, owls, red kites and peregrine falcons swoop around the grounds at the British Bird of Prey Centre (bird shows start at 11:30am and 2pm). 

6. Meet seals and seabirds on Ramsey Island

Best wildlife island

If we had to pick one location for sheer variety of wildlife, it would be Ramsey Island, off the tip of St David’s Head in Pembrokeshire. Rising sheer and rugged out of swirling seas, the island’s 120m-high (394ft-high) cliffs echo with the calls of nesting colonies of choughs, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes from spring to mid-August. 

In autumn, Atlantic gray seals flock to the island’s beaches to mate and pup, with adorable white fluff-balls appearing in every cove and cavern. While the island feels agreeably wild, getting there is a breeze; boats regularly depart from the old lifeboat station at St Justinians, 2 miles (3¼km) west of St Davids, bumping across rapids and a rocky reef called the Bitches and Whelps.

Planning tip: For a full day of twitching and seal-spotting, cross to Ramsey with Thousand Islands Expeditions – the only company permitted to land on the island; daily tours run from April to October. Alternatively, Voyages of Discovery runs one-hour boat tours of the waters around Ramsey from March to November, getting you close to caves, sea stacks, seabird-bobbled cliffs and pods of harbor porpoises. 

7. Hear the bellow of rutting deer in the Welsh hills

Most evocative wildlife experience

Wales is home to two native species of deer – red deer and roe deer – joined by fallow deer introduced by Norman invaders in the 11th century. For your best chance of spotting deer, head to higher ground during the rutting season, which runs from September to November, with October being the best month for sightings. 

Most of Wales’ deer roam wild, making seeing them a matter of luck. Yet you can be confident of observing rutting fallow deer at Margam Country Park, inland from the coast east of Swansea, where a managed herd roams across 200 hectares (500 acres) of peaceful estate land. 

To spot red deer – the largest wild mammal in the UK – take a walk in the soaring hills of Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog (aka Brecon Beacons National Park). Hike away from human habitation and keep your ears open during the rutting season in quieter corners of the national park. 

8. Spot peregrine falcons swooping at Cemlyn Bay 

Best high-speed experience 

The sparsely populated hills of Wales provide a prime hunting ground for the fastest predator in the UK: the peregrine falcon, which can clock up speeds of 200 mph (320 km/h) as it dives to snatch small birds from the air. Breeding pairs nest in many locations, including at the English end of the Wye Valley at Symonds Yat, but the Cemlyn Nature Reserve on Anglesey is a good spot to see these agile predators in Welsh skies.

Cemlyn Bay hosts thriving colonies of Sandwich, common and Arctic terns from May to July, plus pairs of peregrine falcons, which gather here to prey on young chicks. If you don’t get lucky spotting them, seeing the raucous terns is a rewarding consolation prize. Another good falcon-spotting site is the Britannia Bridge linking Anglesey and the mainland, where falcons keep watch over the waters of the Menai Strait.

9. Seek out otters around Wales’ lakes and rivermouths

Best for patient wildlife spotters

Having rebounded following WWII, wild populations of otters are regrettably in decline in Wales these days, but they can still be spotted beside rivers and lakes and along quiet stretches of seashore across the country. They’re timid, so you’ll need to be patient and quiet; the best time for sightings is by the water at dusk. 

Pembrokeshire offers particularly rich opportunities for otter spotters. Try your luck around lakes such as Llys-y-Frân between Fishguard and Pembroke, and the Bosherton Lily Ponds on the coast near Stackpole, where you can also spot tawny owls in the woods of the Stackpole Estate, and seabirds around the eroded cliffs at Stackpole Head.   

10. Circle the Worm’s Head to see seals, seabirds, cetaceans and jellyfish

Best family wildlife experience

For a wild encounter close to the city, take a boat tour with Gower Coast Adventures to the dramatic Worm’s Head at the south end of gorgeous Rhossili Bay, on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea. The boat trip from Oxwich Bay is an easy excursion to tack on to a day-trip to the Gower’s lovely beaches. 

The sea around this craggy isthmus is frequented by gray seals, harbor porpoises, common dolphins and myriad species of jellyfish, while the cliffs and rocks host gannets, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars. Thrilling, family-friendly boat trips (good for kids aged three and older) run from April to September.

This article was adapted from Lonely Planet’s Wales guidebook, published in June 2025.