The islands are free of introduced species and are thus covered in dense subantarctic vegetation up to about 200 m. Human visitors are rare.

It lies about 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) north-west, across the Jean-Baptiste Charcot Channel, from the tip of the Loranchet Peninsula, the northernmost extension of Grande Terre, the principal island of the Kerguelens.

They were so named after the frequently mist-covered tops of their cliffs and were referred to as the Cloudy Isles by James Cook in 1776.

[3] The Îles Nuageuses, including Île Clugny, have been identified as a 240 km2 Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.

Other birds breeding on the islands include Antarctic prions, Kerguelen, white-chinned, Wilson's storm and common diving petrels, as well as black-faced sheathbills.