Poseidon Expeditions has announced a new 13-day cruise: British Isles: Legendary History & Wild Nature, scheduled for May 22-June 3, 2019, aboard the Sea Spirit.

The cruise departs Plymouth on England’s southwest coast, sailing north on the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. The route wraps around islands off of Scotland’s coast before concluding in Edinburgh.

The company said the intent is to explore a diversity of landscapes, wildlife and history that on most mainland visits to the UK are overlooked because accessing these islands is time-consuming. 

If booked by Nov. 1, 2018, guests receive discounts of up to 15 percent. A per person double, suite accommodation rate, with discount, is from $7,196; a per person triple rate, with discount, is $5,216. Guests travel on the recently refurbished 114-passenger Sea Spirit.

Leading a team of naturalist guides will be historian Huw Lewis-Jones. He holds a doctoral degree from Cambridge University and has served as Curator at the Scott Polar Research Institute and the National Maritime Museum in London.

Guests will investigate a micro-climate on the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall’s coast, moving on to puffin breeding grounds on the Skellig Islands just off of the Republic of Ireland. Here the trip becomes a feast for birdwatchers on the lookout for the northern gannet, European storm petrel, northern fulmar, Manx shearwater, black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot and razorbill. The rich waters around the islands are home to whales, dolphins and seals.

Snowdonia National Park in Wales offers some of the wildest and most dramatic landscapes in Britain where otters, water voles, wild ponies and rare birds such as dotterel and peregrine falcon thrive. Off of Northern Ireland’s coast is Rathlin Island, with one of Europe’s largest seabird colonies. At the West Light Seabird Centre atop a sea cliff are scenes of cavorting puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills and fulmars.