50 Surprising Things You Never Knew About the Falkland Islands
1. There are more Penguins than People
The Falklands have only around 3,600 residents, but around one million breeding pairs of penguins, across five species, including King, Gentoo, Southern Rockhopper, Macaroni and my favourite, the Magellanic Penguin.
2. There is only one Commercial Flight a Week
If you want to fly commercially to the Falkland Islands, you don’t have many choices. There is just one scheduled commercial flight each week, operated by LATAM on a Saturday.
The flight travels from Santiago in Chile, via Punta Arenas in southern Patagonia, before crossing to Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falklands. On certain Saturdays each month, the route also connects with Rio Gallegos in Argentina. Mount Pleasant isn’t in Stanley either. It is around 45 minutes away and is actually part of the large British military complex on East Falkland.
That means if you miss the Saturday flight, you can’t simply book another one the next day. You could potentially be waiting another week.
3. You can Fly to the Falklands with the RAF
The other main way to fly between the UK and the Falkland Islands is on the RAF Airbridge between Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and Mount Pleasant.
The service is primarily for military personnel, but a limited number of seats are available for civilians. I think there are usually only around 30–40 civilian seats available, with the rest mainly for military personnel. Falkland students travelling to and from education in the UK are among those given priority for seats at particularly busy times, and it is not uncommon to be bumped as a civilian.
The journey takes around 18 hours and, when I flew on the Airbridge, we stopped at Ascension Island both on the way to the Falklands and on the way back to the UK.
How Much Does It Cost to Fly 8,000 Miles to the Falklands? Answer: approx. £1,595 return in 2026.
4. What is Camp?
Once you leave Stanley, you are in “Camp”. This is the name Falkland Islanders use for the countryside and settlements outside the capital. The word comes from the Spanish word campo, meaning countryside or open country.
Camp covers almost the entire Falkland Islands, from remote farms and tiny settlements to huge stretches of completely empty landscape. Only a small proportion of the Falklands’ population lives outside Stanley. People living in Camp can be incredibly isolated, with some farms and settlements many miles from their nearest neighbours.
5. What Happens to the Roads When You Leave Stanley?
Drive out of Stanley and things change pretty quickly. Once you head into Camp, the tarmac gives way to gravel roads and, if you go far enough, tracks across the landscape.
For years, many places in Camp had no road connection at all. Getting around meant a 4×4, crossing open ground and hoping the Falklands weather hadn’t turned your route into something rather more interesting.
Even today, you can drive for miles without passing another car, house or person. This is definitely 4×4 country.
6. How Do You Live Off Grid in the Falklands?
Living out in Camp can mean being a long way from the nearest town, shop or even your closest neighbour, so many farms have had to become incredibly self-sufficient.
Many generate their own electricity using wind turbines and solar panels, often with batteries and diesel generators as backup. In fact, more than 90% of farms in Camp now use renewable energy.
There are no mains services stretching across these vast empty landscapes, so if you choose to live somewhere really remote, you need to be prepared to generate your own power, store supplies and be pretty self-sufficient.
Back in Stanley it’s very different. There is mains electricity, but most homes are still heated using kerosene. According to the 2021 census, 79% of Stanley households used kerosene as their main source of heating.
It gives a whole new meaning to living off grid.
7. Did People Really Heat Their Homes with Peat?
For generations, peat was one of the main fuels used to heat homes in the Falkland Islands. Families would cut blocks from the ground, stack them to dry and then burn them in their fires.
It was still surprisingly common until quite recently. As late as 1991, around half of Falkland households were using peat as their main source of heating.
Stanley even had its own peat banks, where residents were allocated areas to cut their supply.
8. Why are so Many Houses in Stanley Built on Stilts?
One of the things I noticed in Stanley was how many of the older houses are raised off the ground on wooden piles. Stanley is built on wet, peaty ground, so raising the timber buildings helps keep them away from the damp and allows air to circulate underneath.
In fact, Stanley has suffered two huge peat slips. In 1878, a mass of waterlogged peat slid down the hill towards the town, damaging several houses. Then in 1886 it happened again, only this time it was much worse. Two people were killed, several houses were destroyed and the Exchange Building was so badly damaged that it eventually had to be demolished.
Afterwards, a proper drainage system was created to prevent it happening again.
9. Why are the Roofs so Colourful?
One of the first things you notice about Stanley is the brightly coloured roofs. Reds, greens, blues and yellows stand out against the landscape.
Traditionally, Falkland houses were roofed with corrugated iron, which needed to be painted to protect it from the wet, salty air. But the colours also helped give houses their own identity and, out in Camp, made isolated buildings much easier to spot from a distance.
Some farms even developed their own colour schemes, so you could tell which settlement or farm a building belonged to simply by the colour of its roof.
10. Who Cleared the Falklands’ Landmines?
Thousands of landmines were left behind after the Falklands War in 1982, and for decades some areas of the islands remained fenced off because they were simply too dangerous to enter.
The people who finally cleared them were a team of specialist deminers from Zimbabwe. Working in difficult conditions, they painstakingly cleared the remaining minefields one by one.
The last mines were removed in 2020, almost 40 years after the war, and the Falkland Islands were officially declared landmine free.
But the deminers left another legacy too. Some liked life in the Falklands so much that they stayed. By the time the mine clearance programme ended, 19 Zimbabwean deminers had decided to remain, finding new jobs, putting down roots and, in some cases, bringing their families to join them.
11. Where Does Everything Come From?
Living on a group of islands in the South Atlantic means that almost everything has to be brought in. Cars, clothes, building materials, household goods and much of the food on the supermarket shelves have travelled thousands of miles before they reach Stanley.
Fresh fruit and vegetables can be particularly limited and expensive. When I was there, getting really good fresh fruit felt like striking gold. The local tom-tom drums would soon spread the word when something desirable had arrived, and people would swoop on the shops. A fresh delivery of bananas could suddenly become very exciting!
Stanley also has a brilliant little charity shop called Bargains Galore, with possibly the most eclectic collection of donated items I have ever seen. Before I left, I added a brand-new pair of hiking boots to the collection.
12. Does Everybody Really Know Everybody?
With only around 3,600 people living in the Falklands, it doesn’t take long to realise that everybody seems to know everybody else, and quite often they know your business too!
I arrived in the Falklands on a stretcher after being medivaced from South Georgia, so perhaps I was more recognisable than most. But even as a newcomer, I was amazed by how quickly people knew who I was, where I had come from and why I was there.
That can be both good and bad. News and gossip travel incredibly quickly. I discovered that people had formed an opinion about me before they had even met me, and it was quite upsetting at times to encounter hostility from people who didn’t know me at all, based purely on what they had heard from someone else who had their own agenda.
But I also experienced the lovely side of a small community. When I eventually started getting back on my feet and walking around Stanley with my crutch, people regularly stopped and offered me a lift. Sometimes complete strangers. That kindness is something I won’t forget.
13. How Difficult is it to Find Somewhere to Live?
Finding somewhere affordable to live in Stanley can be incredibly difficult, particularly for migrant workers.
Many people arrive on two or three-year contracts with accommodation provided as part of their job. The problem comes when they want to move on. I met staff working at the Malvina House Hotel who wanted to take better-paid jobs elsewhere but couldn’t because those jobs didn’t come with accommodation and they simply couldn’t find anywhere affordable to live.
I also heard of Filipino workers sharing houses with as many as 15 people crammed into one property. When accommodation is scarce and expensive, having a roof over your head can become more important than finding a better job.
It was one of the less visible sides of life in the Falklands that I hadn’t expected to encounter.
14. Why Don’t They Just Build More Houses?
With such a shortage of accommodation, you might wonder why they don’t simply build more houses.
One thing I heard repeatedly in Stanley was frustration over land. Large areas are held by relatively few landowners, and there was plenty of local talk that some were reluctant to sell because future oil development could push land values much higher, so they were holding out to make bigger profits.
How much of that is fact and how much is local speculation, I can’t say. But the housing shortage certainly isn’t speculation.
15. Was Starlink Really Illegal in the Falklands?
When I arrived in the Falklands in 2025, internet access was controlled by one provider, Sure, and it was incredibly expensive.
Starlink offered much faster internet for a fraction of the cost, but at the time most people weren’t legally allowed to use it. Despite this, you couldn’t help noticing Starlink dishes popping up in gardens all over Stanley. It certainly wasn’t everyone, but there were a lot of them. The government accommodation we stayed in before travelling to South Georgia didn’t have it, for example.
In June 2025, the government agreed to change the rules and introduce a licensing system for Starlink, although this still had to be implemented.
Ironically, Government House was already using Starlink while ordinary residents were still waiting for legal access.
16. What Happens if You Get Seriously Ill?
Stanley has one hospital, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, but there are limits to what can be treated on such a remote group of islands. It has a CT scanner, for example, but no MRI scanner.
The hospital relies partly on doctors and specialists coming from overseas, often for relatively short periods. I experienced both ends of the scale. One German doctor treating my severe sciatica was so incompetent that he recorded the wrong leg and the wrong side of my body on my official medical paperwork. Thankfully, I was later treated by an incredibly competent Dutch doctor who couldn’t have been more different.
For serious conditions that can’t be treated in Stanley, patients can be medically evacuated to South America, usually Chile or Uruguay.
And thankfully for me, the Falkland Islands and the UK have reciprocal healthcare arrangements. As a UK resident, I didn’t suddenly find myself facing an enormous medical bill on top of everything else.
17. Does the Falklands Have a Supreme Leader?
Well, no, not quite! The Falkland Islands are self-governing, but they have a Governor appointed by the Crown. And rather unusually, the Governor also has another job as Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
When I was there, that was Colin Martin-Reynolds, a fellow Scot and an incredibly kind soul.
On Christmas Eve, when I was at a particularly low point after receiving threatening letters from the South Georgia Government, Colin came to see me. He brought me a box of homemade shortbread and mince pies, sat with me and reassured me.
I genuinely don’t think I would be here today without the kindness he showed me that Christmas Eve.
The Governor lives in Government House in Stanley, which has been the official residence of Falklands governors since the 1840s.
18. Why is Margaret Thatcher Everywhere?
Margaret Thatcher is remembered rather differently in the Falklands than she is in many parts of the UK.
In Stanley, you’ll find Thatcher Drive, named after her, and there’s even a bronze bust of the former Prime Minister overlooking the 1982 Liberation Memorial. Every 10 January, Margaret Thatcher Day is marked in the Falklands to commemorate her role in the liberation of the Islands in 1982.
Coming from a former Scottish mining village, and old enough to remember the miners’ strike and the devastation it caused to communities like mine, I have a rather different relationship with Mrs Thatcher.
Needless to say, I privately renamed it Milk Snatcher Drive. Grrrr!
19. What Happens When You Finish School?
Children in the Falklands can attend school in Stanley through their secondary years, but once they reach 16, things can change dramatically.
There is no sixth-form college or university in the Islands, so young people wanting to continue their education generally have to leave home. Many travel thousands of miles to the UK to attend sixth-form colleges, further education colleges or university.
The Falkland Islands Government supports eligible students with their education and travel, which is also why students can be given priority for those precious civilian seats on the RAF Airbridge.
Imagine being 16 and your next step in education involves moving more than 8,000 miles from home.
20. Is Squid Really Worth More Than Sheep?
You might associate the Falklands with sheep, wool and tourism, but fishing is actually the powerhouse of the economy.
The waters around the Islands are particularly rich in squid, and valuable fishing rights are held by Falklands companies. Some of the big names you see around Stanley include Fortuna, Seafish and Polar Seafish. Depending on the company, they may own or part-own fishing vessels, work through joint ventures or charter vessels to catch their quota.
Fishing transformed the Falklands economy after the fisheries conservation zone was introduced in 1986 and remains its biggest industry today.
So despite all those sheep, penguins and cruise ships, it is squid that really helps pay the bills.
21. How Do You Pass Your Driving Test Without Traffic Lights?
There isn’t a single set of traffic lights anywhere in the Falkland Islands, but you can still get a provisional licence, learn to drive and sit your driving test there.
They drive on the left, just like us, and if you pass, you get a Falkland Islands driving licence. Even better, the licence is recognised in Great Britain and can be exchanged for a GB licence if you move here.
No traffic lights, no rush-hour jams, but you do have one rather unusual road hazard to watch out for…
Penguin speed bumps!
22. Does Something Feel Fishy About the Supermarkets?
Stanley has three main supermarket names: The West Store, The Chandlery and Kelper Stores, although Kelper and Chandlery have several shops around town.
But here’s where things get a little fishy. The Chandlery is actually owned by Seafish Falklands, one of the Islands’ fishing companies. Seafish doesn’t just catch fish. Its interests include retail, property, accommodation and other businesses.
The West Store belongs to the Falkland Islands Company, another huge name in the Islands which has been part of Falklands life for more than 170 years.
When I lived there, I was fascinated by how often the same few company names seemed to crop up in completely different parts of everyday life.
23. If You’re Born in the Falklands, Are You British?
Being born in the Falkland Islands doesn’t automatically make you a British citizen.
Today, a child born there is automatically British if, at the time of their birth, at least one parent is a British citizen, a British Overseas Territories citizen, or is legally settled in the Falklands.
The Falklands has a particularly interesting history when it comes to British citizenship. After the 1982 war, the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983 granted British citizenship to qualifying Falkland Islanders. The law changed again in 2002, when British citizenship was extended more widely to people connected with Britain’s Overseas Territories.
So Falkland Islanders who qualify aren’t simply carrying some special Falklands version of a British passport. They are British citizens.
24. Are Falkland Islanders Kelpers?
Yes! Kelper is a traditional nickname for a Falkland Islander, and it comes from the enormous beds of giant kelp that surround the Islands.
The name has been around for generations and, although it has sometimes been used as a derogatory term by outsiders, Falkland Islanders have also made the name their own.
You’ll still see it around Stanley today. There’s even a supermarket called Kelper Stores.
So if someone tells you they’re a Kelper, they haven’t suddenly turned into seaweed. They’re a Falkland Islander!
25. Is Oil the New Squid?
Yes, and potentially rather a lot of it.
Oil has been discovered in the waters north of the Falkland Islands, most notably in the Sea Lion field, around 135 miles north of Stanley. It was first discovered in 2010, but actually getting the oil out of the ground has taken years of planning, politics and enormous amounts of money.
The Sea Lion project is now moving towards production, with the first oil expected before the end of the decade.
It could bring a huge new source of income to the Falklands, but it is also controversial. Argentina strongly opposes oil exploration around the Islands, while environmental groups have raised concerns about developing a new oil field in the South Atlantic.
Remember all that talk I heard about people holding onto land in the hope that oil would push up property prices?
Perhaps now you can see why everyone was talking about it.
26. Where Have All the Trees Gone?
One thing you quickly notice in the Falklands is the almost complete lack of trees.
The Islands are naturally treeless. Strong winds, cool temperatures and the exposed South Atlantic climate make it difficult for trees to establish themselves, so the natural landscape is dominated by grasses, heath and low-growing plants instead.
There are a few trees around Stanley and some settlements, but these have been planted by people and often need plenty of protection from the wind.
And when I say windy, I mean windy. You soon discover why Falkland Islanders don’t spend their weekends raking up autumn leaves.
There aren’t any.
27. Where is the British Military Hiding?
You might expect the Falkland Islands to feel like one enormous British military base. Surprisingly, they don’t.
Britain maintains a substantial military presence on the Islands, but most of it is based at Mount Pleasant Complex, around 35 miles from Stanley. It opened in 1985, three years after the Falklands War, and includes an RAF airfield, military accommodation and facilities for the Army, Royal Navy and RAF.
But when you’re walking around Stanley, you really don’t see much evidence of it. I lived there for months and, apart from the occasional reminder, everyday life felt very separate from the military world at Mount Pleasant.
Of course, the reason the military is still there is serious. Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, and Britain maintains the garrison to defend them.
Perhaps the strangest thing is that most visitors arriving by air actually see the military Falklands before they see the civilian ones. Both the RAF Airbridge and the weekly LATAM flight land at Mount Pleasant.
28. What Do Half a Million Sheep Do for a Haircut?
Absolutely. And it’s not even close.
There are just under half a million sheep in the Falklands, compared with around 3,600 people. That’s well over 100 sheep for every person.
Most are Polwarth/Merino crosses, bred to cope with the Falklands’ tough conditions and produce good quality wool. Wool has been the backbone of Camp farming for generations, although today the sheep are increasingly bred for both wool and meat, with Falklands lamb and mutton also being exported.
Then comes shearing season. From November through the summer, shearing gangs work their way through the enormous flocks, and shearers come from overseas to help get the job done.
In fact, one of my taxi drivers in Stanley told me he’d originally come to the Falklands to shear sheep. He liked the place so much that he stayed.
The Falklands produce around 1.5 million kilograms of wool every year.
So the penguins may have the numbers, the sheep have the land, but as we discovered earlier…
the squid have the bank account.
29. Can You Do a Pub Crawl in the World’s Most Remote Capital?
Absolutely!
Stanley may only have a few thousand residents, but it has a surprisingly healthy collection of pubs and bars. There’s the Globe Tavern, The Vic, Deano’s Bar, The Rose Bar, Stanley Arms, The Narrows Bar and Groovy’s, plus the Falkland Beerworks taproom and several hotel bars.
In fact, there’s even an official Stanley Pub Walkabout, taking you between five of the town’s watering holes.
Considering you can walk from one end of Stanley to the other, that’s a pretty impressive number of opportunities to stop for a pint.
The pubs and hotels are a big part of the social scene too. I remember Hogmanay when the big New Year’s Eve dance was being held at the Malvina House Hotel. Sadly, I was absolutely floor bound with my sciatica at the time, so while Stanley was out celebrating, I was going nowhere.
And probably just as well there are so many pubs. With Falklands weather, sometimes you need somewhere to shelter between them!
30. Does the Falklands Have its Own Three Peaks Challenge?
It certainly does, but forget Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon.
The Falklands Three Peaks Challenge takes you across Mount Tumbledown, Two Sisters and Mount Longdon, three mountains overlooking Stanley which were all major battlefields during the Falklands War.
The annual challenge is around 12 miles, or 20 kilometres, and you can walk or run it. But if you enter as a team, things get rather more serious. Teams of four carry 20 kg each around the course.
The event is organised by the Falkland Islands Defence Force, and for new recruits it has another purpose. Completing the Three Peaks is their final fitness challenge before earning their berets.
But you don’t have to be military to take part. It’s open to the wider Falklands community too.
So if the British Three Peaks Challenge isn’t quite difficult enough for you, there’s always the Falklands version.
Just add South Atlantic weather and three former battlefields.
31. Why Are There So Many Shipwrecks in the Falklands?
The waters around the Falkland Islands are littered with shipwrecks.
Before the Panama Canal opened, ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific had to make the dangerous journey around Cape Horn. After battling huge seas, fierce winds and ice, damaged ships would often limp into Stanley for repairs.
Some were simply too badly damaged to continue. They were condemned, stripped of anything useful and sometimes turned into floating warehouses or coal hulks. Others eventually sank or were simply abandoned.
Today, the Falklands have an extraordinary collection of historic wrecks, including several survivors from the great age of sail.
My favourite has to be the Lady Elizabeth, built in Sunderland in 1879. After decades sailing the world’s oceans and rounding Cape Horn, she was eventually condemned in Stanley and used as a coal hulk before breaking free from her moorings in 1936.
She still sits in Whalebone Cove today, slowly rusting away more than 145 years after she was built.
And yes, you can walk there from Stanley. I did it on two crutches!
32. Did Britain Tow a Port to the Falklands?
Pretty much!
After the Falklands War in 1982, Britain urgently needed better port facilities in Stanley to support the huge increase in military supplies and shipping arriving in the Islands.
The solution was FIPASS, the Falkland Interim Port and Storage System. Instead of building a conventional harbour from scratch, huge floating pontoons were constructed in Britain, linked together and towed thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Stanley.
More than 40 years later, FIPASS is still there and still very much in use.
It also became an important place in my own Falklands story. I boarded Pharos SG at FIPASS to sail to South Georgia. A couple of months later, I arrived back at exactly the same floating port after being medically evacuated.
Only this time, I was carried off Pharos on a stretcher.
33. Were Falkland Islanders Locked Up During the War?
Imagine being told to gather in your village hall for a meeting, only to hear the doors being locked behind you. That’s what happened to 114 Falkland Islanders at Goose Green during the Falklands War.
On 1 May 1982, residents of Goose Green and nearby Darwin were ordered into the Social Club by the occupying Argentine forces. Men, women, children and elderly residents were crammed together inside, where most would remain for almost a month. Conditions became pretty grim, with limited water, blocked toilets and very little privacy.
Meanwhile, Argentine forces occupied the settlement outside. Towards the end of May, the fighting reached Goose Green itself and one of the most famous battles of the Falklands War was taking place around them. Following the Argentine surrender at Goose Green on 29 May, the Islanders were finally released.
When I lived in the Falklands, people spoke to me about the trauma their parents still carried from the occupation and the war. More than 40 years later, for some families it is still very much within living memory. They may have been released from that hall in 1982, but for some, what happened there didn’t simply disappear when the doors opened.
34. Did the Falklands War Really Start in South Georgia?
Most people associate the beginning of the Falklands War with the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982.
But trouble had already begun more than 800 miles away on South Georgia.
In March 1982, a group of Argentine scrap-metal workers landed at the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour and raised the Argentine flag. Tensions escalated and, on 3 April, the day after the invasion of the Falklands, Argentine forces attacked the small Royal Marines detachment at Grytviken.
The Royal Marines fought back before eventually surrendering.
During the fighting, an Argentine Puma helicopter carrying troops came under fire from the Royal Marines and crashed on Brown Flats. Two Argentine servicemen were killed.
More than 40 years later, I walked across Brown Flats myself. The wreckage of that helicopter is still there. I also passed an old metal pillbox riddled with bullet holes, another physical reminder of what happened here in 1982.
I didn’t realise at the time that two men had actually lost their lives in the helicopter whose wreckage I was looking at.
Three weeks after the Argentine occupation, British forces returned and recaptured South Georgia on 25 April 1982.
It is strange to think that somewhere I knew as one of the most remote and beautiful places on Earth still carries the physical scars of War.
35. Why Did Falklands TV Keep Repeating Itself?
Television in the Falklands is a little different from back home.
British television is available through BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which provides television and radio for British military personnel around the world. Because the Falklands are several hours behind the UK, the TV channels are time-shifted. Otherwise, your favourite evening programme could be showing in the middle of the afternoon and breakfast television would be starting while you’re still tucked up in bed!
The Falklands also has its own television service, Falkland Islands Television, or FITV. Its locally produced programme, Falklands in Focus, covers news and stories from around the Islands and is repeated throughout the week. So if you think you’ve already seen what’s on television, there’s a good chance you have!
It used to be even more unusual. Before satellite television arrived in the late 1990s, British programmes were physically sent thousands of miles to the Falklands on videotapes. By the time Islanders watched them, they could be around two weeks behind viewers in Britain.
Imagine trying to avoid spoilers for two weeks when practically everybody knows everybody!
36. Is Everything Called Penguin in the Falklands?
Well, not everything. But they certainly like the name!
The Falklands has its own newspaper, Penguin News, which has been keeping Islanders up to date with local news, politics, sport and community life since 1979.
Then there’s Penguin Travel, which operates the local Penguin Bus service around Stanley.
For such a small community, having its own newspaper and local bus service is pretty impressive.
And to be fair, when you’ve got around a million breeding pairs of penguins living on your islands, you’ve probably earned the right to name a few things after them.
37. What Brings Twitchers 8,000 Miles to the Falklands?
Penguins might get all the attention, but for serious twitchers, the Falklands have something even more tempting.
The Falklands have two bird species found nowhere else in the world: the Falkland Steamer Duck and Cobb’s Wren.
The Falkland Steamer Duck is particularly strange. It’s completely flightless and powers across the water using its wings and feet, churning up the surface like a little paddle steamer. I was lucky enough to see these while I was there.
And that’s before you start counting the Falklands’ own subspecies. I saw the Black-crowned Night Heron and the beautiful red-breasted Long-tailed Meadowlark, known locally as the Military Starling, without realising at the time that I was looking at birds unique to the Falklands in their particular form.
But some of my favourite wildlife encounters happened while I was slowly learning to walk again. At high tide, I would make my way along Stanley’s waterfront on my two crutches, watching the water as I went.
Twice, I had penguins shoot past me underwater like little black-and-white torpedoes.
No boat trip. No wildlife tour. Just me, my crutches and a penguin swim-past.
For a serious twitcher, the Falklands are pretty special. For me, those unexpected little encounters were even better.
38. Where Are All the Native Land Mammals?
Here’s something you might not expect. The Falkland Islands have no native land mammals left at all.
There was once one, the Falkland Islands Wolf, also known as the Warrah. It looked rather like a small wolf or fox and completely baffled Charles Darwin when he encountered it during the voyage of the Beagle.
Because it had evolved without human predators, the Warrah was remarkably tame. Unfortunately, that made it very easy to kill. Settlers saw it as a threat to their sheep, so they hunted and poisoned it until they killed the last known Warrah in 1876.
Today, any land mammals you see in the Falklands, including sheep, cattle, horses, rats, mice and that wee cat I kept seeing around the hotel, were introduced by humans.
The Falklands’ truly native mammals are all in the sea, including seals, sea lions, dolphins and whales.
So the Islands are full of wildlife, but if it’s furry and walking around on dry land, its ancestors probably arrived by boat.
39. When Were Whales Worth More Dead Than Alive?
In the early 1900s, the Falklands became an important base for the rapidly growing Antarctic whaling industry. Whaling companies used Stanley for supplies, repairs and administration, while ships headed south to hunt whales around South Georgia and the Antarctic.
The Falkland Islands Government began issuing whaling licences in 1906, and for a time the industry brought considerable income to the Islands.
The real centre of the whaling industry shifted to South Georgia, where enormous shore-based whaling stations grew up at places such as Grytviken and Leith Harbour.
Having lived on South Georgia, I saw the remains of that industry for myself. Rusting tanks, abandoned buildings and huge pieces of machinery still sit around the old whaling stations.
Thankfully, these days the whales around the Falklands are being watched rather than hunted, and several species have made remarkable recoveries. Quite a change from harpoons to binoculars. You can still see the legacy of whaling all around Stanley today. There’s the famous Whalebone Arch outside Christ Church Cathedral, built from the jawbones of two blue whales. But there are also much more unexpected reminders: a whale model in a children’s playground and even a fence made from driftwood and whale bone.
It’s a strange thing to see today, when whales are something we celebrate rather than hunt.
40. What Happens When a Cruise Ship Comes to Town?
Getting to the Falklands independently isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get tourists. Around 70,000 cruise passengers can visit during a single season, compared with a resident population of only around 3,600.
And when a big cruise ship arrived in Stanley, it felt as though every man and his dog suddenly joined the tourism industry.
It reminded me very much of living in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands. Nobody seemed to have just one job. On cruise days, people with completely different day jobs suddenly became guides, drivers and helpers, taking visitors around Stanley and out to see the wildlife.
Even Laura, my amazing physiotherapist, would swap physio for guiding. She spoke fluent Spanish, so when a ship arrived with Spanish-speaking passengers, her language skills were suddenly just as useful on a tour bus as they were in the hospital.
Cruise ships can transform Stanley for a few hours, sending hundreds or sometimes thousands of visitors into a town with a normal population of only a few thousand.
Then the last tender returned to the ship, everyone went back to their other jobs, and Stanley became Stanley again.
41. Is It Really Illegal to Walk Your Dog Through a Sheep Farm?
Well, for four months of the year, it can be!
Falklands law specifically says that you cannot take a dog onto or across a sheep station between 1 August and 30 November without first getting permission from the owner or manager.
Why those dates? It’s lambing season, and with around half a million sheep on the Islands, protecting them from dogs is taken pretty seriously.
The wildlife has plenty of legal protection too. Deliberately disturbing wild birds at their nests, disturbing their young or taking their eggs can all land you in trouble.
And on some of the protected wildlife islands, the rules become even stricter. You cannot necessarily bring animals into the Falklands, pick plants or take away shells, skulls or other natural souvenirs. So enjoy the Falklands wildlife. Take photographs. Watch the penguins. Just don’t nick an egg and take the dog for a shortcut through a sheep station on the way home.
42. What on Earth is a Falkland Pound?
The Falkland Islands have their own currency, the Falkland Islands pound.
The Falkland Islands pound is fixed at exactly the same value as the British pound, so £1 Falkland Islands pound equals £1 sterling. British notes and coins are also accepted in the Islands.
But Falklands money looks rather different. The banknotes and coins feature distinctly local designs, including wildlife and images connected with the Islands.
There’s just one small catch. While you can happily spend British pounds in Stanley, don’t expect to come home and spend your leftover Falkland pounds in Tesco. Falkland Islands currency isn’t legal tender in the UK and generally needs to be exchanged before you leave.
So it might say £10 in your wallet, but once you’re back in Britain, it’s a rather attractive souvenir.
43. Saints, Kelpers and 71 Birthplaces: Who Really Lives in the Falklands?
For somewhere with only around 3,600 residents, the Falklands are surprisingly multicultural.
At the last census, people living there had been born in an astonishing 71 different countries and territories.
In fact, fewer than half of the population were born in the Falklands themselves. Around 45% were Falklands-born, while the largest overseas-born groups came from the UK, St Helena, the Philippines and Chile.
The one that surprised me was St Helena. At the 2021 census, 369 residents had been born there, around one in every ten people living in the Falklands. St Helenians, known as Saints, have a long history of coming to the Falklands for work, creating a strong connection between these two tiny British Overseas Territories thousands of miles apart.
The Filipino community has grown rapidly too. In 2012, just 22 Falklands residents had been born in the Philippines. By 2021, that number had risen to 178.
When I lived in Stanley, you really noticed that mixture. I met people from all over the world working in healthcare, hospitality, fishing, construction and other industries.
For such a remote place, the Falklands are remarkably international.
44. Why Do Falklands Kids Have Smoko at School?
Don’t panic. Nobody is sending the children outside for a cigarette!
Smoko is a Falklands tradition, a break for tea or coffee accompanied by something to eat, usually homemade cakes, biscuits or other treats. You’ll hear the word all over the Islands, particularly out in Camp, where stopping for smoko is practically an institution.
School life has another surprise. There are no school canteens providing lunch in Stanley. At lunchtime, the children actually leave school and go home for lunch, or younger children can go to childcare providing a lunchtime service. When I was living in Stanley, I often saw groups of schoolchildren having their lunch in the little café inside The West Store, before heading back to school for the afternoon.
At the secondary school, lunch starts at noon and pupils don’t have to be back until 1.30pm. That’s quite a lunch break!
And while British children are starting their long summer holiday in July, Falklands children are in the middle of winter. Their big summer break runs from mid-December until the end of January. Smoko, home for lunch and Christmas in the middle of the summer holidays. School life is just a little bit different in the Falklands.
The word itself comes from “smoke-o”, originally a break from work for a smoke. People believe the word reached the Falklands through Australian sheep shearers, and over time it became the name for the traditional morning and afternoon tea break.
45. How Many Postcodes Does the Falklands Have?
Just one.
Whether you live in Stanley or miles away in Camp, the postcode is the same:
FIQQ 1ZZ
Even more surprisingly, the Falklands didn’t have a postcode at all until 2003.
So why did they suddenly need one?
Partly because their mail had a habit of going on adventures of its own. People sometimes sent letters intended for the Falkland Islands to the Faroe Islands, Iceland or even Falkland in Fife, Scotland.
But there was another very modern problem. As internet shopping became more popular, many websites wouldn’t accept an address without a valid postcode. Giving the Falklands FIQQ 1ZZ meant Islanders could finally fill in those online forms properly.
Royal Mail and the Universal Postal Union helped introduce the postcode, which now covers addresses across the Islands. So whether your letter is going to a house in Stanley or a remote settlement out in Camp, there’s only one postcode to remember:
FIQQ 1ZZ. The rest is up to the Falklands Post Office!
46. What Happens When There’s Only One Bank?
The Falklands has one commercial bank. That’s right. The entire Islands have just one: Standard Chartered.
So if you’re looking for a mortgage, there isn’t a row of banks competing for your business. You can’t simply walk down the road and see what Halifax, Nationwide or Santander might offer you. There is one bank. And housing is already a big issue in the Falklands. The Falkland Islands Government has recognised the problem and works with Standard Chartered to provide a subsidised mortgage scheme for people buying their main home.
Under the current Joint General Mortgage Scheme, you can borrow up to £142,500, with 7% fixed interest for up to 25 years. The scheme can finance up to 95% of the property, meaning you could need only a 5% deposit.
There is another variable-rate mortgage available through the bank, which can finance up to 80% of the property and has no stated maximum borrowing limit.
But even with government help, buying a home isn’t necessarily easy. The Falklands have limited mortgage options, high construction costs and a shortage of affordable homes. And then there’s the cash machine.
There’s one ATM in Stanley, at Stanley Services petrol station. So if it’s out of order, you can’t just try the next cashpoint. There isn’t one.
47. Mr Stanley, I Presume?
So who exactly was Stanley? Lord Stanley, British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, after whom the Falklands’ capital was named.
The funny bit? He had never even visited the Falklands.
The new settlement became the capital in 1845. Then, in 2022, Stanley was officially granted city status as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Today, fewer than 3,000 people live there. So yes, I lived in a city.
A very small, very remote city where you can walk across town in minutes, and where penguins outnumber people by a considerable margin.
Stanley: city status, village-sized population.
48. Need a C for Your Alphabet Parkrun Challenge?
Cape Pembroke Lighthouse parkrun gives you your perfect C.
Cape Pembroke Lighthouse parkrun in Stanley is the world’s most southerly public parkrun, and it starts and finishes with views towards the lighthouse and South Atlantic.
You can run, jog or walk the 5 km, so you don’t have to be a runner.
I discovered it while recovering from my sciatica in the Falklands. I was still using two crutches, so my version was definitely a walk!
But that was the beauty of it. I could take part at my own pace, surrounded by the incredible Falklands landscape.
And if you’re doing the Alphabet Parkrun Challenge, you’ve just found yourself a rather spectacular C.
The most remote parkrun in the world.
49. Can You Book a Flight Without Knowing Where You’re Landing?
Pretty much! FIGAS, the Falkland Islands Government Air Service, operates tiny Islander aircraft between Stanley and remote communities across the Islands.
There are no big airports or fixed routes. A flight can make several stops, depending on who needs picking up or dropping off.
Some visitors even book a FIGAS flight just for the experience, to see the Falklands from the air and visit somewhere they couldn’t easily reach otherwise. Your flight time isn’t confirmed until the day before, because FIGAS works out the schedule around the day’s passengers and freight.
You might even find yourself sharing the tiny aircraft with livestock.
It’s part public transport, part lifeline and, for visitors, a rather brilliant adventure.
50. What Did Living in the Falklands Teach Me?
- The Falklands taught me it’s a bit like Wester Ross, except there isn’t an easy drive to the next big city (getting out of Dodge is hard).
- Everyone knows everyone’s business.
- People are incredibly friendly and will offer you a lift whether you’ve asked for one or not.
- The wrinkly old pepper on the supermarket shelf can cost £3.
- Yoghurt might be made by shaking powder into milk.
- Chocolate can cost five times what you’d pay in Britain.
- Filipinos really do make the world a better place.
- Penguins are Perfect and make me Smile.
- The beaches are like the Western Isles: beautiful, sandy and absolutely bloody freezing.
- Diddle-Dee berry jam must be the most expensive jam in the world.
- Nobody seemed to collect sea glass, so by the time I was mobile again, I think I may have wiped out the supply along Stanley’s waterfront.
- The Malvinas Hotel staff became my family during those seven weeks when I was completely floor-bound. They fed me, looked after me, encouraged me and kept me going. I came away believing that people who work in service jobs deserve far more recognition and pay. The people who cook, clean, drive, care for us and make our lives easier deserve more than they often get. They deserve to earn more than CEOs.
- Then there is summer. After seven weeks flat on my back, I finally got outside. Stanley was covered in lupins and filled with sweet summer scents. It was beautiful.
- The Falklands even named a street near the hospital St Mary’s Walk, after the saintly Dutch doctor who looked after me.
- The post boxes are red, just like back home. So is it any wonder that despite being 8,000 miles away, the Falklands can feel more British than Britain.
Saint Mary’s Walk aka Saintly Dutch Doctor who got me home!
P.S. So Why Does Argentina Claim the Falklands?
You can’t spend time in the Falklands without eventually wondering about this. Argentina claims the Islands as the Islas Malvinas, arguing that it inherited Spain’s claim when it became independent in 1816.
Britain’s claim goes back further. Britain established a settlement and claimed sovereignty in 1765, long before Argentina existed as an independent country. Britain returned and re-established its settlement in 1833, and British administration has continued ever since, apart from Argentina’s 74-day occupation in 1982.
And yes, Argentina is much, much closer. The Falklands lie only about 300 miles from South America, while Britain is around 8,000 miles away.
But there is another important voice in this argument: the people who actually live there. In the 2013 referendum, 99.8% of Falkland Islanders who voted chose to remain a British Overseas Territory.
So there you have it. A tiny group of islands, two competing historical claims, one very large ocean between them and a population that has made its own views extremely clear.
To the Argentian Nation and Its People You will be Welcome in Our Country, When You Drop Your Sovereignty Claim and Recognise our Right to Self Determination
51. What’s Hiding in the Falklands Coat of Arms?
A ram, a ship and a sea lion walk into a bar.
The barman looks at them.
“F**k lads!”
“No…” they reply.
“Falklands?”
“How did you know?”
“Wild guess!”
It sounds like a joke. There’s a ram, a sailing ship, five stars, some wavy blue lines and the words “Desire the Right”. But every bit means something. The ram represents the Islands’ sheep farming and wool industry, while the grass is tussac. The ship is the Desire, associated with John Davis’s sighting of the Falklands in 1592.
And then there’s the motto. “Desire the Right.” It’s a pun on the name of the ship, but also a declaration of intent. The current coat of arms was adopted in 1948. And just to make things even more interesting, the previous 1925 version actually had a sea lion instead of the ram.
52. Why Do the Falklands Have a Newspaper Called Penguin News?
Penguin News is the Falklands’ own local newspaper, established in 1989. It covers everything from politics and farming to community news, sport, wildlife and the everyday gossip of life on the Islands.
53. Why Is the Falklands Post Office a Philatelist’s Paradise?
The Falklands has just one post office, in the Town Hall on Ross Road. But for stamp collectors, it is rather special.
Falklands stamps have been issued since 1878, and the Philatelic Bureau has been selling them around the world since 1978. It also handles stamps for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the British Antarctic Territory. And the post can literally take to the skies. FIGAS began in 1948 as an air ambulance and mail service, long before it became the passenger and tourist service we know today.
So a postcard bought in Stanley can end up travelling across the Islands in a tiny aircraft. For someone who spent time working in a South Atlantic Post Office, I rather love that.
50 Surprising Things You Never Knew About the Falkland Islands
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