- Where
- About 4 km west of Dakar,
off the Cap-Vert peninsula - Coordinates
- 14.65° N
17.47° W - Area
- 0.45 km² (Protected Planet)
45 ha (UNESCO Tentative List) - Protected
- National park since 1976
UNESCO Tentative List - People
- Uninhabited
- Breeding birds
- Red-billed tropicbird, white-breasted
cormorant, bridled tern - Getting there
- Park boat from Soumbédioune, Dakar
(crossings suspended in 2019; ask) - Best visited
- November to June (the dry season), on a calm day
The boat was painted every colour a boat can be, and it nosed out through the swell while the city fell away behind us. The island rose dark and steep, its rock stacked like burnt loaves. Overhead, white birds with long streaming tails wheeled and wheeled, shrieking. I sat in a sheltered hollow and ate an orange, very slowly.
The short answer
The Îles de la Madeleine are a group of small, uninhabited islets off Dakar, Senegal. BirdLife International’s Important Bird Area account describes three rocky volcanic islands about four kilometres west of the coast, off the southern end of the Cap-Vert peninsula on which Dakar stands; Senegal’s legal text for the park, as indexed by the FAO’s FAOLEX database, describes two islets with a fifty-metre strip of sea around them. The largest islet is Sarpan, also called the Île aux Serpents. The islands have been a national park since 1976, by the park’s UNESCO Tentative List entry, and cover 0.45 square kilometres by Protected Planet’s figure, or 45 hectares by UNESCO’s.
Why it's worth knowing
A seabird colony beside a capital. Sarpan holds breeding colonies of red-billed tropicbirds, white-breasted cormorants and bridled terns, Wikipedia records. BirdLife’s account counts 30 or more pairs of tropicbirds and says they are the only breeding birds of the species known from a mainland African country; a count published in the journal Waterbirds in 2019 recorded 45 to 49 nests over the 2014–2016 seasons, BirdLife’s site summary reports. The cormorant colony, about 400 nests, was introduced in the 1980s from the Parc national des Oiseaux du Djoudj, by BirdLife’s account.
Cliffs cut by the sea. The islets are volcanic, with steep cliffs carved by the sea, Wikipedia records, and the park’s plant life is part of what it protects.
The field notes
The baobab that vanished
When the French naturalist Michel Adanson explored the islands in 1749, he reported a baobab 3.8 metres in diameter, its trunk carved with the names of passing mariners, among them, by his account, Prince Henry the Navigator in 1444 and the cosmographer André Thevet in 1555. From it he concluded that baobabs live extraordinarily long. When Théodore Monod searched the island in the twentieth century, the tree was not to be found. Wikipedia tells the story from Wickens and Lowe’s 2008 study of the baobabs.
Whose islands
The park is a cultural site of the Lebu fishing community of Dakar, and by the community’s traditions it is the home of Ndoek-Daour, the protective spirit of the city, the park’s UNESCO Tentative List entry records. The Lebu founded Ndakaaru, the village from which Dakar takes its name, in the seventeenth century, Wikipedia records.
A dwarf baobab on the island’s dry plateau, April 2010.
Photograph: Dorothy Voorhees · Iles de la Madeleine-Baobab nain · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
A basalt islet from the sea, its crest streaked white, December 2011.
Photograph: HaguardDuNord · Sénégal - Iles de la Madeleine depuis la mer (3) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
Dry grassland on the island plateau, the Atlantic beyond, April 2010.
Photograph: Dorothy Voorhees · Iles de la Madeleine-Steppe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
The islands from the sea, December 2011.
Photograph: HaguardDuNord · Sénégal - Iles de la Madeleine depuis la mer (4) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
- Buckle the life vest at the jetty, and keep the crossing for a calm day.
- The fishing families across the water count these rocks as their own. Tread here as a visitor to their front room.
- Stay a good distance from the drop, where the birds come and go.
- Write this list on the ride home, and find that the salt spray has edited it already.
- Bring water, a hat and an orange, and share the shade with nobody but the wind.
The cliffs of Sarpan. The steep, sea-cut volcanic cliffs of the largest islet, also called the Île aux Serpents, where the red-billed tropicbirds nest. They are looked at from the boat and from a respectful distance on land, and left exactly as they are.
Tally, in the marginI watched the birds all afternoon and, only as the boat turned for home, noticed what they had been perched on. The cliffs had held up the entire performance without once asking to be noticed.
Getting there
How to get there. Fly to Dakar. The park’s office and landing are on the Corniche Ouest at Soumbédioune bay, and visitors have crossed in the park’s boats, with life jackets compulsory, Le Petit Journal’s Dakar edition reported. On 16 September 2019 a tourist pirogue bound for the islands capsized in heavy rain and swell; four people died, two of them park staff, and the crossing was suspended until further notice, press agencies reported at the time. We could not confirm from a primary source whether, or on what terms, landings have resumed: ask at the park office before planning a visit. From the corniche the islands are in plain sight.
When to go. The dry season, November to June; Dakar’s rains fall from July to October, Wikipedia records, and the 2019 accident happened in a storm. Go only on a calm day.
What to arrange ahead. Ask the park office whether crossings are running, and book through it. Bring water and sun protection; the islands are uninhabited.
Safety. The State Department has Senegal at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, with the Casamance region, far to the south, at Level 2 for crime and landmines (advisory dated 1 December 2025 in its feed, read 5 October 2026). The hazards here are the sea crossing, the cliffs and the sun.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where are the Îles de la Madeleine in Senegal?
The Îles de la Madeleine are uninhabited volcanic islets about four kilometres west of Dakar, Senegal, off the southern end of the Cap-Vert peninsula, by BirdLife International’s account. The largest islet is Sarpan, also called the Île aux Serpents.
How big is the Îles de la Madeleine National Park?
The Parc national des Îles de la Madeleine covers 0.45 square kilometres by Protected Planet’s figure, or 45 hectares by its UNESCO Tentative List entry. BirdLife describes three islets; Senegal’s legal text, as indexed by FAOLEX, two, with a fifty-metre strip of sea.
When did the Îles de la Madeleine become a national park?
The Îles de la Madeleine were protected as a national park in 1976, by the park’s UNESCO Tentative List entry. The site is on Senegal’s Tentative List for World Heritage status.
What birds breed on the Îles de la Madeleine?
Red-billed tropicbirds, white-breasted cormorants and bridled terns breed on Sarpan, the largest islet. BirdLife counts 30 or more pairs of tropicbirds, the only breeding birds of the species known from a mainland African country.
Can you visit the Îles de la Madeleine?
Visitors have crossed from the park office at Soumbédioune, on Dakar’s Corniche Ouest, in park boats with life jackets compulsory. After a tourist pirogue capsized on 16 September 2019, killing four people, the crossing was suspended; ask the park office whether landings have resumed.
What was Adanson’s baobab on the Îles de la Madeleine?
In 1749 the French naturalist Michel Adanson reported a baobab 3.8 metres in diameter on the islands, carved by passing mariners, by his account including Prince Henry the Navigator in 1444. Théodore Monod later searched for it and did not find it.
Why are the Îles de la Madeleine important to the Lebu people?
The park is a cultural site of the Lebu fishing community of Dakar, and by its traditions the home of Ndoek-Daour, the protective spirit of the city, according to the park’s UNESCO Tentative List entry.
Are these the same as the Magdalen Islands in Canada?
No. The Îles de la Madeleine of Senegal are uninhabited islets off Dakar in the Atlantic. Canada’s Îles de la Madeleine, the Magdalen Islands, are an inhabited archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Quebec.