A 20m-high cathedral cut into hexagonal basalt columns, so acoustically resonant that the swell inside produces a deep organ…A 20m-high cathedral cut into hexagonal basalt columns, so acoustically resonant that the swell inside produces a deep organ note. The columns are geometrically perfect, as if quarried. Puffins nest on the island above. Formed by a Palaeocene lava flow that cooled into hexagonal columns, the same flow as the Giant's Causeway. Named for the hero of Macpherson's Ossian poems. Mendelssohn visited in 1829 and wrote the Hebrides Overture from the sound of it; Queen Victoria, Keats, Wordsworth, Turner and Jules Verne all made the pilgrimage. Anchorage: No sheltered anchorage at Staffa, day visit only in settled weather; landings from a tender at the north-east steps. Hazards: No site-specific hazards noted, brief normally. Plus