Rùm rest of the British Isles and Scotland, Rùm features a strongly maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. There is a MetOffice weather station at Kinloch providing long term climate observations. The main range of hills on Rùm are the Cuillin, usually referred to as the "Rùm Cuillin", in order to distinguish them from the Cuillin of Skye. They are rocky peaks of gabbro, forming the Rum layered intrusion. Geologically, Rùm is the core of a deeply eroded volcano that was active in the Paleogene era some 60 million years ago, and which developed on a pre-existing structure of
South Soufriere Hills and the Soufrière Hills stratovolcano. It ranges in elevation from 200 to 750 m above sea level and contains tropical evergreen forest. Other IBAs on the island are the Northern Forested Ghauts and Centre Hills. The IBA was identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports, populations of bridled quail-doves, green-throated caribs, Antillean crested hummingbirds, scaly-breasted thrashers, pearly-eyed thrashers, brown tremblers, forest thrushes, Montserrat orioles and Lesser Antillean bullfinches. South Soufriere Hills South Soufriere Hills is a 35 ha patch of forest on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea.