Falkland Islands

Stanley's red-roofed, brick-and-stone cathedral, consecrated in 1892, is the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world and the town's best-known landmark. Its stained glass and memorial plaques tell the story of a seafaring community. On the green in front stands the Whalebone Arch, made from the jawbones of blue whales and raised in 1933 to mark a century of continuous British administration. Around it, Ross Road runs along the harbour past brightly painted tin-roofed houses, Government House and the old jetty.

TipStanley is compact; walk the waterfront from the cathedral east to the Liberation Memorial and west to the museum in an easy half-day.

Run by the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust, the museum occupies a cluster of restored dockyard buildings on the waterfront and is the best place to understand the islands' history. Galleries cover the early French, Spanish and British settlements, sheep farming and camp life, the age of sail, when storm-damaged ships limped into Stanley harbour from Cape Horn, the Antarctic link, natural history and the 1982 conflict. Look out for the old cottage and smithy preserved in the grounds, and the rusting hulks of nineteenth-century ships still visible in the harbour.

At the west end of the waterfront, the Liberation Memorial was unveiled in 1984 and lists the names of the British servicemen and civilians who died in the conflict, beneath a figure of Britannia. Islanders gather here every 14 June, Liberation Day, for a service and parade. Argentine war dead are buried at a separate cemetery near Darwin on East Falkland, which relatives visit; it is a quiet, carefully kept site, and visitors should treat both places with the same respect.

A short drive from Stanley, around the far side of the harbour, Gypsy Cove is a sheltered bay of pale sand and turquoise water backed by tussac grass and low cliffs. Magellanic penguins nest in burrows in the slopes from roughly October to March, and you can hear their braying calls long before you see them. A marked path leads along the clifftop, with views of rock cormorants, oystercatchers and sometimes dolphins in the bay. The nearby Yorke Bay beach, mined during the 1982 war, is now cleared and open again.

TipStay on the path and do not step over the ropes: the burrows collapse easily, and the birds are close enough without getting closer.

The final battles of June 1982 were fought on the rocky ridges a few kilometres west of Stanley: Mount Longdon, Two Sisters, Mount Harriet, Wireless Ridge and Mount Tumbledown. Today they are open moorland scattered with memorials, wreckage and old defensive positions, and local guides who know the ground run half-day tours that explain each action from both sides. Further west, San Carlos, where British troops landed, and Goose Green also have memorials and small museums. Decades of demining, carried out under the Ottawa Convention, ended in November 2020, when the islands were declared free of known landmines; the old fenced red-sign minefields are gone, though any suspicious object should still be left alone and reported.

TipWear proper boots and windproofs: the ridges are rough, boggy in places, and exposed.

The largest king penguin colony in the Falklands stands on a grassy plain behind a long white beach on the north-east coast of East Falkland. Hundreds of adult kings, with their brushed-gold necks, stand among fluffy brown chicks, while gentoo and Magellanic penguins nest nearby. Getting there is half the experience: a drive of a couple of hours from Stanley, the last part across open camp in a four-wheel drive, so almost everyone goes with a local tour operator. The site is on private farmland, and a landing fee is usually included in the tour price.

TipKeep a respectful distance and let penguins approach you, never the other way round. The birds often wander across the beach to the sea in the afternoon.

Long and narrow, Pebble Island off the north coast of West Falkland has a mix of wildlife and history in a small space. Rockhopper, gentoo and Magellanic penguins nest along its shores, ponds draw black-necked swans and other waterfowl, and beaches stretch for kilometres. In 1982 British special forces raided an Argentine airstrip here; aircraft wreckage and memorials remain. A lodge on the island arranges four-wheel-drive excursions.

Saunders is a working sheep farm off West Falkland, and the site of Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the islands, from 1765. Its star attraction is The Neck, a narrow sandy isthmus linking two parts of the island, where gentoo, Magellanic, rockhopper and a small group of king penguins nest within walking distance of one another, with a black-browed albatross colony on the slopes above. Visitors stay in simple self-catering cabins at The Neck or at the settlement.

In the north-west of the archipelago, Carcass Island has never had rats or cats, and its small birds show it: Cobb's wrens and tussacbirds, rare on islands where predators were introduced, hop around the settlement garden, and striated caracaras, curious birds of prey locally called Johnny rooks, investigate anything left lying around. Gentoo and Magellanic penguins nest on the beaches, and the farmhouse lodge is known for its home baking. Expedition cruise ships often stop here.

The southernmost inhabited island in the Falklands is small and flat enough to explore on foot, yet holds an astonishing concentration of wildlife: southern elephant seals hauled out on the beaches, sea lions, gentoo, Magellanic and rockhopper penguins, giant petrels, and, offshore in season, orcas hunting seal pups. A lodge is the only accommodation. A memorial to HMS Sheffield, the destroyer lost in 1982, looks out to sea.

TipElephant seals and sea lions can move quickly. Keep well back, never walk between a seal and the sea, and follow the lodge's guidance.

Off the south-east coast of East Falkland, Bleaker Island is a long, low sheep farm with sandy bays, a big colony of imperial cormorants, rockhopper and gentoo penguins and good birdwatching on its ponds. It is quieter than the better-known islands, with self-catering accommodation, and its short flight from Stanley makes it a good last stop before heading home.