By 2014 this had increased to over 75,000, making it the largest colony in the world. Northern gannets began a colony at Troup Head in Aberdeenshire in 1988, and by 2014 it held an estimated 6,456 pairs. Saint Kilda and Sula Sgeir, in the Hebrides, Scotland. The former colony was estimated at 60,290 pairs and the latter 11,230 pairs in 2013. A colony on the Flannan Isles almost doubled in size to 5,280 pairs in 2013. Further south, the island of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde hosted an estimated 33,226 pairs in 2014. Ailsa Craig has been known as a colony since 1583. In Shetland, there were an estimated 25,580 breeding pairs at Hermaness, 11,786 on Noss, and 3,591 on Fair Isle in 2013, while Orkney had an estimated 4,550 pairs at Sule Stack. Sule Skerry's breeding population rose from 57 to 1,870 pairs between 2003 and 2013. Wales Grassholm off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales had an estimated 36,011 pairs in 2015. Gannets began nesting here between 1820 and 1860, though never in great numbers, only exceeding 300 pairs by 1913. England Bempton Cliffs hosted an estimated 12,494 pairs in 2015, more than tripling in size in 12 years. Ireland Little Skellig, a small island located about off the Iveragh Peninsula of County Kerry is the largest colony in Ireland, hosting around 30,000 breeding pairs. Known as a gannetry before 1700, human impact had reduced the population to 30 pairs by 1880 before rapidly increasing to around 10,000 pairs by 1906, the fastest recovery ever recorded at a gannet colony. There are small colonies on Ireland's southern coast, on Bull Rock, County Cork, Clare Island, County Mayo and Great Saltee Island, County Wexford. Alderney. Around 7,500 pairs nest on two islets—Ortac and Les Etacs—off the coast of Alderney in the English Channel, the first birds only nesting there in the 1940s. These birds migrate further south to the Mediterranean and west coast of Africa than more northerly breeding colonies. France. The French island of Rouzic in the Jentilez archipelago off the coast of Brittany hosts the southernmost breeding colony of northern gannets. Established in the late 1930s, it had grown to over 11,500 breeding pairs by 1995. Pairs have nested sporadically with varying success along the Mediterranean coast. Germany. Northern gannets have reappeared on Heligoland in 1991 and around 680 breeding pairs have been counted in 2016.