If you want a gorgeous vacation with scores of wildlife, jaw-dropping scenery and wild cliffs then you don’t have to fly halfway across the world to experience it.

There’s a group of islands right here in the UK that has something for everyone to enjoy.

The Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland are an incredible place to see some of the most incredible wildlife the UK has to offer from puffins, to seals, to scuba diving. 

Of these 28 islands scattered through the sea, the largest and most famous is Inner Farne. 

Once home to the solitary monk famed for healing, St Cuthbert, no one lives permanently on the island today but they are a wildlife reserve, managed by National Trust rangers who stay on the island for months at a time. 

Between April and July, visitors to the island can enjoy the mass gatherings of puffins on the island as they breed and hunt for fish in the bracing North Sea.

The island is also home to breeding colonies of seals which are easiest to see over the winter and autumn months, and some people have even spotted dolphins diving in the sea off the islands. 

If you have the right gear, and are brave enough to sink beneath the freezing waters off the coast, you can dive to one of the dozens of shipwrecks that litter the sea floor surrounding the Farne Islands. 

While time has rotted many of the ships to nothing, there is still a lot to see.

Sovereign Diving offers tours of these wrecks, where in some locations there are three or four separate sites.

This means a lot of boilers, props and engines lying on the seabed creating the perfect reef for all the wildlife.

This is also good news for novices, as some of the dive sites are shallow enough for them to enjoy as well as the more experienced divers.