Magnus the Wandering Walrus Ends Scottish Tour, Resurfaces in Norway

After charming crowds along Scotland’s northeast coast for weeks, the celebrity walrus known as Magnus has packed his tusks and crossed the North Sea. The young male, first spotted hauling his 2.5-metre body onto a pier in Orkney on April 16, was recently photographed resting on a floating dock near Stavanger, Norway.

Magnus quickly became a local sensation as he traveled south from Orkney to the Moray coast, napping on piers and pontoons in towns like Lossiemouth, Macduff, Fraserburgh, Findochty, and Hopeman. Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch him scratch himself vigorously and, in one particularly Instagram-worthy moment, accidentally roll off a harbour wall.

Walrus sightings in Scotland remain rare, though they have increased in recent years. Experts say climate change may be driving younger animals farther south as Arctic sea ice shrinks. Police even set up a cordon at Lossiemouth marina to keep admirers at a safe distance.

Local resident Katie Wilson spotted Magnus near a nursery in Findochty. “The kids could not believe it,” she said. “It’s not every day you see a walrus here.” By late April, Magnus was seen swimming alongside sailing students from Gordonstoun, King Charles’s former school, in Hopeman harbour.

On May 14, birdwatcher Åge Jakobsen spotted Magnus on an island south of Stavanger. “He looked really tired after the 400-mile journey,” Jakobsen told BBC Scotland. “But he was having a great time in the sun on the floating dock.”

The Orkney Marine Mammal Research Initiative called Magnus’s visit “a genuinely rare event” – only the third walrus sighting in Orkney in a decade. Adolescent walruses, they noted, are known to wander, possibly following food or simply exploring as their Arctic home changes.