https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/ A shore journal of Minch whales, dolphins and porpoises: which species pass, when they pass, and how to read the sea from a headland. en-gb https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/winter-shore-watching/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/winter-shore-watching/Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Short days, hard weather and almost nobody watching. What is still here in December, why humpback records pulse now, and how to work a four hour window. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/summer-on-the-minch/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/summer-on-the-minch/Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000June to August holds the only clear peaks on this coast. It also holds the worst light, the busiest car parks and the highest chance of wasting a calm morning. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/north-minch-whale-watching-season/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/north-minch-whale-watching-season/Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000Which cetaceans are recorded in Hebridean waters in each month, which have a real peak, and which are present all year without ever being easy. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/rhue-and-loch-broom/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/rhue-and-loch-broom/Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The lighthouse north of Ullapool and the calm sea loch behind it: the site in this register that still works when everywhere else is at sea state 5. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/clachtoll/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/clachtoll/Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000A beach and rocky shore in Assynt with a ranger hut, whale bones in the car park, and ice carved mega grooves offshore that the local animals appear to follow. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/kilt-rock/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/kilt-rock/Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000A Trotternish clifftop with deep water directly below it, full accessibility, and the height that turns a pod of common dolphins into a visible event. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/butt-of-lewis/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/butt-of-lewis/Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000Nearly 360 degrees of sea from the foot of a red brick lighthouse, crumbling cliffs, and the northern end of a Risso’s dolphin protected area. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/tiumpan-head/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/watch-points/tiumpan-head/Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The Eye Peninsula headland that the Hebridean Whale Trail calls one of the best land based whale watching places in the UK, read as a watching position. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/sea-state-and-what-it-hides/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/sea-state-and-what-it-hides/Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The eight point scale the Sea Watch Foundation uses on its land based form, step by step, with what disappears from a shore watch at each one. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/species/sperm-whale/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/species/sperm-whale/Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000One or two reports a year in the whole Hebrides. The angled blow, the logging rest and the arched fluking dive that make a shore identification certain. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/species/humpback-whale/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/species/humpback-whale/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000Long flippers, a bushy blow up to four metres, and a raised fluke on the dive. Why humpback records here pulse from late autumn into winter. https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/wind-tide-and-light/https://hebridean-whale-cruises.com/seasons/wind-tide-and-light/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The three conditions recorded alongside sea state on the Sea Watch Foundation form, what each of them does to a shore watch, and how to plan around them.