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Field Guide · Entry № 209

Aride Island

Aride is a steep granite island at the northern edge of the Seychelles’ granite islands, a short boat ride from Praslin, and it belongs to the birds. For almost a century its seabirds’ eggs were gathered by the hundred thousand; since 1967 nothing has been taken, and the colonies have come back so fully that Aride now has more breeding seabird species than any other island in the country. There is one beach, facing south. Visitors are brought to it in the reserve’s own small boat, step ashore with wet feet, and walk the island only with a ranger.

Dozens of black-and-white terns stand on pale granite slabs among low trees and green leaves

Photograph: Colin J Taylor · Seychelles Aride Island Frigate ^ Noddy - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

Where
Indian Ocean, about 8–10 km north of Praslin
(Wikipedia gives both)
Coordinates
4.2133° S
55.6667° E
Area
68 hectares
People
Reserve staff only
(eight, by Wikipedia’s count)
Protected
Special Reserve since 1979
managed by the Island Conservation Society
Getting there
Day trip from Praslin, about 30 minutes
then the reserve’s boat to the beach
Best visited
October to April (the visiting season)
From Tally’s diary

Our boat stopped short of the beach and a smaller one came out to fetch us, and we landed with wet feet on white sand. The air was full of birds, snowy and sooty and pale grey, wheeling over a steep granite hill thick with forest. Small lizards ran over everything, my boots included. A ranger walked us up slowly, and nobody said much at all.

The short answer

Aride Island is the northernmost of the Seychelles’ granitic islands, a nature reserve of 68 hectares in the district of Grand’Anse Praslin, Wikipedia records; the same article places it 10 kilometres north of Praslin in one section and 8 kilometres in another. It has been a Special Reserve under Seychelles law since 1979, including a marine zone of 200 metres around it, and is leased and managed by the Island Conservation Society. Its only people are the reserve’s staff, living at La Cour on the south side, and there are no government services: for those, the islanders go to Praslin.

Why it's worth knowing

A seabird island restored. More than 1.25 million seabirds breed regularly on Aride, by Wikipedia’s figures, among them the world’s largest colony of lesser noddies and of tropical shearwaters and the largest Seychelles population of roseate terns, and large numbers of non-breeding frigatebirds roost there. It has more breeding seabird species than any other single island in the country. For almost a century sooty tern eggs were cropped, up to 220,000 a season, and the endemic land birds were wiped out; in 1967 the owner, Paul Chenard, stopped the collecting and declared the island a reserve, and in 1973 Christopher Cadbury bought it for what is now the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Birds brought home. Five land birds found only in the Seychelles now live on Aride, Wikipedia records. The Seychelles warbler was brought from Cousin Island in 1988, and Aride’s population, over 2,000 pairs, is now the largest in the world; the Seychelles fody followed in 2002, and the magpie robin came from Frégate. The density of lizards on the island is among the greatest on earth, and the shrub Wright’s gardenia grows wild nowhere else.

The field notes

A pile of rocks

The name Aride first appears on charts after French voyages of 1770 and 1771, and in 1787 the French commandant of the Seychelles, Jean-Baptiste Malavois, wrote it off as “no more than a pile of rocks covered with a few bushes”, Wikipedia records. The painter Marianne North, visiting in 1883, found a single large tree on it. Coconut palms were later planted over much of the island for copra; rats never arrived. The wooden plantation house above the settlement is one of the last of its kind in the Seychelles.

Ownership and care

Management passed to the Island Conservation Society in 2003; in 2006 the freehold went to its UK charity, which leased the island back to the society in the Seychelles in 2008. A restoration project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, running from October 2024 to January 2026, aimed to improve breeding habitat for seabirds, land birds and nesting turtles, the fund’s project page reports in indexed text. Green and hawksbill turtles come ashore on Aride’s beach.

A white beach with dark eroded rocks, palms and broadleaf trees bending in the wind, a large seabird gliding overhead under grey cloud

A white beach with eroded rocks and wind-bent trees, a frigatebird overhead.

Photograph: Colin J Taylor · Seychelles Aride Island - panoramio (1) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

An all-white seabird with a black eye and dark bill perches on a splintered branch against deep shadow

A fairy tern on a broken branch.

Photograph: Colin J Taylor · Seychelles Aride Island Fairy Tern - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

A bronze, finely scaled lizard lifts its head above dry leaves on dark soil

A skink on the forest floor.

Photograph: Colin J Taylor · Seychelles Aride Island Skink - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

A dark frigatebird with a pale head perches on a granite boulder, a small brown tern-like bird below it

A frigatebird and a noddy on a granite boulder.

Photograph: Colin J Taylor · Seychelles Aride Island Frigate ^ Noddy - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

Tally’s list
  1. Wear shoes that can stand a soaking, and hand your bag up before you climb out of the little boat.
  2. Keep to the ranger’s pace and the ranger’s path. The birds nest on the ground, right beside it.
  3. Try listing the birds, then the lizards. The list now ends with a single word in large letters: more.
  4. This island is the birds’, and the rangers keep it for them. Ask a ranger before you take a picture of anyone at work.
  5. At the top, look out toward the next islands, then down at your own feet. A lizard will already be there.
The Relic

The plantation house. The wooden house of Aride’s plantation days, standing above the small settlement of La Cour, which Wikipedia calls one of the last buildings of its type to survive in the Seychelles. The rangers’ walks begin from it. It is seen from outside, at the start of the walk.

Tally, in the marginClimbing past, I gave the old house a polite glance, as one does the hall before a party. Coming back, with the birds still shouting overhead, it seemed more a visitor permitted to remain, and I made it a small bow.

Getting there

How to get there. By boat from Praslin, which has flights and ferries from Mahé. Excursion boats cross in about 30 minutes; because there is only one beach, visitors change at sea into the reserve’s own boat for a wet landing on the sand, travel guides report, quoting the Island Conservation Society’s arrangements. A ranger then leads a walk of about two kilometres, starting from the old plantation house, of about one and a half to two hours.

When to go. October to April. The reserve is normally open to visitors on weekdays through the north-west monsoon season, and the beach faces south, so landings are hard when the south-east trade winds blow strongest, from June to September, Wikipedia records. Outside the season, trips depend on the weather.

What to arrange ahead. A day trip from Praslin with an operator that lands on Aride, and the reserve’s entrance fee: R650 for non-resident adults, by the figure travel guides give. There is no accommodation for visitors on the island.

Safety and medical care. The State Department has the Seychelles at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 9 December 2025 in its feed, read 5 October 2026), but places Praslin, La Digue and the outer islands at Level 2 for health: smaller islands lack the medical infrastructure to treat common traumas or illnesses, and patients must travel to Mahé by boat or plane for care. Aride has no clinic or government services at all, so from Aride any serious care is a boat ride to Praslin and then a further journey to Mahé away. Take any medicine you need with you, and carry insurance that covers medical evacuation, as the State Department advises. The other hazards here are the place’s own: the wet landing in swell, heat, and steep paths.

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Common questions

Where is Aride Island?

Aride Island is the northernmost of the Seychelles’ granitic islands, a 68-hectare nature reserve in the Indian Ocean north of Praslin. Wikipedia places it about 8 to 10 kilometres from Praslin; it belongs to the district of Grand’Anse Praslin.

How do you visit Aride Island?

By day trip from Praslin: excursion boats cross to Aride Island in about 30 minutes, and visitors change at sea into the reserve’s boat for a wet landing on its only beach. A ranger of the Island Conservation Society then guides a walk of about two kilometres.

When can you visit Aride Island?

Aride Island is normally open to visitors on weekdays from October to April, the north-west monsoon season. From June to September the south-east trade winds make landing on its south-facing beach difficult, and trips depend on the weather.

How many seabirds breed on Aride Island?

More than 1.25 million seabirds breed regularly on Aride Island, according to Wikipedia, including the world’s largest colonies of lesser noddy and tropical shearwater and the largest Seychelles population of roseate tern. Aride has more breeding seabird species than any other island in the Seychelles.

Who looks after Aride Island?

Aride Island is leased and managed by the Island Conservation Society of Seychelles. Christopher Cadbury bought it for conservation in 1973, it was declared a Special Reserve in 1979, and the society took over management in 2003.

Is there medical care on Aride Island?

No. Aride Island has no clinic or government services, and its only residents are reserve staff. The State Department warns that nearby Praslin also lacks the medical infrastructure for common traumas, with patients sent to Mahé by boat or plane, so visitors should carry evacuation insurance.

What endemic birds live on Aride Island?

Five land birds found only in the Seychelles live on Aride Island: the Seychelles warbler, brought from Cousin Island in 1988 and now at its largest population anywhere, the Seychelles fody, the magpie robin, the blue pigeon and the sunbird.

Can you stay overnight on Aride Island?

No. There is no accommodation on Aride Island for visitors; only the reserve’s staff live there, at La Cour. Visits are day trips from Praslin.

Notes on sources. This entry draws on the State Department’s Seychelles travel advisory, read directly from its feed (travel.state.gov/_res/rss/TAsTWs.xml) on 5 October 2026: Level 1, exercise normal precautions, dated 9 December 2025, with Praslin, La Digue and the outer islands at Level 2 for health, the lack of medical infrastructure on smaller islands, patients travelling to Mahé by boat or plane, and the advice to carry evacuation cover. Travel guides (seyvillas.com, Le Routard, cruise shore-excursion sheets) supplied, from the Island Conservation Society’s arrangements, the visiting season of October to April on weekdays, the crossing of about 30 minutes, the change at sea and the wet landing, the ranger’s walk of about two kilometres from the former owner’s house and its length, and the fee of R650; the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund’s project page the restoration of 2024–2026. All of these were reached only through their indexed text. Wikipedia’s article on Aride Island, and the references it cites, supplied the island’s position, area and district, the two distances from Praslin, the Special Reserve and its marine zone, the society’s lease and the history of ownership, the staff and La Cour, the absence of services, the seabirds and their numbers, the egg cropping and its end in 1967, Christopher Cadbury, the endemic birds and their introductions, the lizards, the turtles, Wright’s gardenia, the history from 1770 to Marianne North, the copra, the absence of rats, the plantation house, the one south-facing beach and the trade winds. The State Department’s Level 2 names Praslin; Aride, in the Praslin district, has fewer medical services still, which is the editor’s reading of the two sources together. Checked 5 October 2026. Written and fact-checked by SockMonkey. Last reviewed 5 October 2026.