The Greatest Gull - our first major exhibition - opens this summer

The Greatest Gull is the major summer exhibition for the Isles of Scilly Museum and Cultural Centre for the summer season 2026. This exhibition centres around the plight of the greater black-backed gull and how this once hunted and hated predator is now on the Endangered Species Red List. 

Funded by Museum Development Southwest’s Talking Nature Grant, students from the Five Islands Academy - working with the Isles of Scilly Museum and the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust - have created a short documentary film about these fascinating yet misunderstood creatures, which will screen in the exhibition. 

During filming, students travelled to visit gull colonies on Gugh, Samson and the Western Rocks to learn more about Scilly’s greater black-backed gulls and how these apex predators are essential to the health of the islands’ unique and special ecosystem. They also viewed and handled the Museum’s taxidermy collection, to understand the institution’s changing role in wildlife conservation - looking to the past and envisioning how we might protect these important animals into the future. 

The exhibition will dive further into these themes, looking at archival items such as taxidermy birds, antique collected eggs and early glass-plate photographs from the Museum's archive to explore changing attitudes to these gulls over time. 

You can see The Greatest Gull in the Isles of Scilly Steamship Office pop-up exhibition space, from Thursday 26 March to Friday 6 November 2026, open during normal Steamship Office hours.