Seabirds and Seals - The Original Noss Boat Tours

AWARDS

GRADED 5-STARS BY VISIT SCOTLAND - This is the highest grading you can achieved and classed as ‘Exceptional’.

'SCOTTISH FAMILY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR (MICRO) 2024 - The Herald Scottish Family Business Awards 2024

‘BEST OUTDOOR OR ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE’ FINALISTS 2024 - Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards

'SERVICE EXCELLENCE' - SCOTLAND 2024 - FSB (Federation Of Small Businesses)

'BOAT TOUR OF THE YEAR - SCOTLAND 2024 - Travel & Hospitality Awards

GREEN TOURISM 'GOLD AWARD' - 2024

BEST VISITOR ATTRACTION & INCLUSIVE WINNERS - DOUBLE WIN 2023 - Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards

WILDLIFE TOUR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR - SCOTLAND 2024-25 (Also In 2023-24) - Scotland Prestige Awards

BEST WILDLIFE & PHOTOGRAPHY BOAT TOUR COMPANY - SCOTLAND 2023 (ALSO IN 2022 & 21) - UK Enterprise Awards

TRIPADVISOR CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE & TRIP ADVISOR TRAVELLERS' CHOICE - 2024 & ALL OTHER PREVIOUS YEARS

INTRODUCTION

Join Marie, Brian and crew - all Shetland born and bred aboard The Noss Boat 'Seabird' - a very spacious twin engine catamaran with a most spacious viewing platform allowing you to enjoy 360° panoramic viewing. We are all highly experienced and knowledgeable about the local area with a lifetime experience of boats, the sea, nature and our local heritage around us. Join us for what is hailed by many as a 'Real Holiday Highlight' on our popular 5-Star tours around Bressay & Noss.

On this amazing wildlife spectacular you get to enjoy close up views of Shetland's abundant wildlife and one of Europe's most accessible seabird colonies.

We are consistently ranked The NO.1 Noss Boat/Wildlife Experience on TripAdvisor with many excellent ratings and come highly recommended. We are delighted to kick of our 2024 season with a Green Tourism 'Gold' Award, being Green Tourism Accredited shows that we are eco-friendly and commited to working responsibly, ethically and sustainably. Also kicking off 2024, we have been awarded 'Service Excellence' winners for Scotland at the FSB - Federation of Small Businesses. It doesn't stop there for 2024, we were also selected as Finalists for ‘Best Outdoor Or Adventure Experience’ at The Highlands and Islands Thistle Awards. To end 2024, we are Winners at ‘The Herald Scottish Family Business Awards and titled ’Scottish Family Business Of The Year (Micro).

We are delighted with our double Oscar Award for Scotland - in July 2023 we were selected as Finalists in the Highlands and Islands Thistle Awards under two categories - 'Best Visitor Attraction' and 'Inclusive Tourism' - we attending a black tie event in November in Inverness and over the moon to have won in both categories. We were also selected as finalists in 'The Herald Scottish Family Business Awards' and again in two categories - 'Commitment To The Community' and 'Scottish Family Business Of The Year (Micro)'. We are proud of all our achievements and of the accolades that the business has historically received.

Seabirds-and-Seals Noss Boat Tours is an award-winning business. Thirty two (33) years on, Seabirds-and-Seals remains the original and longest-established Noss Boat Tour Business, entertaining visitors and locals alike. This award-winning enterprise was founded in 1992 by Naturalist Dr Jonathan Wills. Skipper Brian has been actively involved with the business ever since it began and in 2017, along with his wife Marie, they bought the business from Jonathan, maintaining the business ethos and reputation as the Original – and Number One – Noss Boat tour business. All these years later, we're still sailing under Jonathan's originally created brand 'The Noss Boat'. As with any business takeover - a new series of TripAdvisor and Google reviews started in our first season (2018), all continue to be extremely positive and show how popular our tours are.

From April through to October we operate daily tours seven days a week (weather permitting) – departing from Victoria Pier Lerwick, ZE1 0EL. You can find the list of daily tour start times by clicking on 'Book Now' on our website which takes you to our online calendar and displays daily tours available, usually three daily tour start times - sometimes four due to demand. All our daily tours are UP TO 2.5HRS with refreshments provided in a tranquil little bay at Noss.

Twice weekly on selected days, and following the same route as above to give you good value, our 'dawn patrol' gives photographers a chance of spectacular early morning light on 20,000 birds in the Noss gannetry. As with our daily tours, we provide refreshments. To find out which days available, just click on 'Book Now' on our website and navigate through your chosen week until you find our 'Early Morning Photography Tour' listed.

You can book/pay online for any of our tours using our easy-to-use online booking system or contact us directly and we will get you booked on.

Our Tours are extremely popular with both locals and visitors, so we do advise booking in advance and not leaving it until the last day of your Shetland trip, as we do sometimes have to cancel due to weather.

About Our 5-Star Tours

All our tours take you right around Bressay & around the cliffs of the famous Noss National Nature Reserve. This trip to Noss is an amazing wildlife spectacle and allows you to enjoy Shetland’s plethora of seabirds and seals, as well as spectacular views. You get unbelievably close to the awe-inspiring sights and sounds of this extraordinary seabird metropolis, which is home to 25,000 Northern gannets, as well as thousands of guillemots, black guillemots, puffins, razorbills, gulls, shags and skuas. You will come eye-to-eye with beautiful blue-eyed gannets and immerse yourself in the unforgettable clamour of a thousands-strong ‘choir’ or different bird calls – a sound you’ll never forget. Superb opportunities to see and photograph Shetland’s wildlife against the stunning backdrop of the 181-metre-high Noss sandstone cliffs. We bring along fresh fish to give you a guaranteed opportunity to see gannets encircling and diving right alongside the boat.

Not guaranteed but if we're really lucky...we may even see porpoises or the occasional whale, otter or dolphin. With the sharp eyes of two dedicated crew on every tour, we are always on the lookout to share as much as we can and we do this with great devotion/enthusiasm as reflected in our TripAdvisor reviews. Whilst out on the water - all eyes peeled and fingers crossed, there is always something different to see, that's what makes our tours so unique. If we are lucky enough to spot them, you could be on no better boat than Seabird for viewing & photography due to her huge viewing platform to enable you to walk about freely and capture the best shots. When viewing marine animals - we fully adhere to 'Nature Scot Marine Code Of Conduct' and also the WiSe Codes of Conduct. We were thrilled to receive accreditation to the WiSe Scheme in March 2022 - the UK's national training scheme for minimising disturbance to marine wildlife.

Along the way, we will regale you with local history, folk tales and geology, share our great knowledge of Lerwick’s beautiful harbour, the Bressay Lighthouse, the Orkneyman’s Cave, the magnificent Giant’s Leg rock arch, and much more. When sea conditions allow, we’ll take you right into the beautiful Orkneyman’s cave and we will sail you through the magnificent Giant’s Leg Archway – which is always a WOW with our guests. Click on our photo gallery to view many more fabulous pictures from our tours – each gives full details of the different wildlife and places we take you.

After your trip around the cliffs of Noss, we anchor in a tranquil little bay, with further wildlife/photography opportunities and a time for everyone to socialize whilst enjoying our onboard refreshements whilst soaking up the beautiful surroundings. We provide fresh filter coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juice, and a selection of biscuits. We cater for gluten-free but should you have any other dietary requirements, just tell us at the time of booking and we will happily accommodate. Please do tell us if you are celebrating a special occasion – we will push the boat out for you (pardon the pun).

UNDERWATER VIEWING SPECTACLE - NOT DAILY - SEE BELOW

Not daily...only during our early evening harbour tour which runs twice weekly on selected days. This unique experience allows you to enjoy our wildlife so prolific in our Lerwick Harbour, as well as Shetland's rich aquatic environment, with our ‘underwater viewing’. We use a remotely controlled submarine video camera, which releases amazing underwater views to display screens in our sheltered cabin to show you a variety of sealife below..

This tour is also sometimes available as an alternative tour, when sea conditions can sometimes prevent us getting out to Noss on our daily scheduled tours. We are sometimes available for trips to look at the widlife so prevalent in or near Lerwick Harbout. If sheltered conditions allows, we can then launch our ROV mini submarine and show you a variety of sealife below.

FAMILY FRIENDLY

Our tours are extremely family friendly with plenty to keep our younger sailors entertained. We have onboard kids activities and challenges set by Skipper onboard - one of our onboard activities has a monthly prize-draw. Each young sailor receives a FREE sea life activity pack to take home and the adults receive 20% discount voucher to use at a choice of two local businesses establishments. We have a range of eco-friendly merchandise and other products available on our online shop and onboard for you to purchase following your tour with us.

THE CREW

On our tours you are in good hands as there are always two experienced crew members, sometimes three. You will be welcomed aboard the Seabird by skipper Brian or one of our relief skippers, and guide, Marie, who provides live commentary throughout the tour using our PA system with individual headsets for each passenger. Your dedicated guide, Marie, is really knowledgeable on all aspects of the tour, from the wildlife and geology to local and natural history, landmarks and so on. We deliver fun, personal, informative, and interesting tours to suit all interests and ages. We provide a very high standard of customer care and welcome any questions you have prior to booking, before the tour, after the tour and beyone. Our customer excellence has been recognised through customer feedback, reviews and through our many accolades, with our most recent being 'Service Excellence' for Scotland 2024 by the Small Business Federation - Celebrating Small Businesses.

OUR SPACIOUS CATAMARAN SEABIRD

‘Seabird’ is licensed to carry 12 passengers and because she’s a catamaran – a very stable twin-hulled boat. There’s a very wide and spacious viewing platform all on one level so you can enjoy 360° panoramic viewing without having to watch where you step . This is the ideal boat for the best photographic opportunities, with room to sit, stand or move around without being confined to your seat or in one space – free as a bird! There’s seating on deck for all, but if you prefer to be inside our heated saloon you’ll still have panoramic views. You can sit around the cabin table to chat, or browse our small but informative ship’s library. There’s also dry storage space inside the cabin where you can securely stow any baggage and belongings, accessible at all times throughout the trip. If your phone battery is running low, not a problem as there are a few USB mobile phone charging sockets inside the cabin. We have an accessible toilet on deck level and equipped with hand sanitizer, hygiene bags etc. Always reassuring to know there is easy access to a toilet on-board and especially after those welcoming refreshments.

Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair accessible and ideal boat for anyone with accessibility or mobility needs, please check out our published Accessibility Guide which gives reference to accessing the toilet and cabin as wheelchair users must be able to transfer to access both as the doors are not wide enough. . If you require access to a wheelchair or any other mobility aids whilst in Shetland or wish to arrange before you get here, please do get in touch as we work in partnership with a local organisation that can assist and happy to communicate with them on your behalf to arrange collection/return. Alternatively we can put you in direct contact with them.

Lifejackets made available upon for all ages upon embarkation. Handy laminated bird/cetecean identification charts available for all passengers to help you appreciate everything you see, also available in Braille format and binoculars available to borrow.

Seabirds and Seals Noss Boat Tours offers by far, the best boat, best crew, best view, and undoubtebly the best value for money due to all our fabulous onboard facilities and always two crew on every tour. The Seabird offers an ideal solution whether you are heading out on a tour as an independent traveller, with your family and friends, or looking to organise a bespoke experience for a tour group or a professional film crew. We are the NO.1 boat of choice for viewing and photography and used by film crews worldwide, most recently being 'Simon King Wildlife'. Brian and our relief Masters are very experienced Shetland skippers operating around Noss. All have a wealth of knowledge about local waters that can only be gained through a lifetime’s experience. Their experience and masterful boatmanship, guarantee you will always have the best and safest trip possible in any given sea conditions.

With every trip being uniqe and special, come find out why we are the NO.1 Shetland Boat Tour and form ever lasting memories.

A trip aboard The Noss Boat 'Seabird' is praised by many as a real holiday highlight - book early to avoid disappointment.