UK Dive Sites

This page details of a variety of coastal and inland sites around the UK. If the site isn't listed, user the link below to check the Regular Venues page. Want to suggest more sites?...use the email link and get in touch.

Eccleston Delph

Eccleston Delph is a flooded quarry in the heart of Lancashire. Known as the Eccy Delph for the last century, it was formerly a Victorian quarry whose products were used in the construction of Blackpool Promenade and to cover the local barns and roofs. Cleaned last year, the current depth is approx 20m, with another 5m expected when work is complete.The owners are still in the process of putting objects underwater. Air fills cost £2.50 per cylinder. Cost £5 to join for two years and then £5 per day. No details of nearby accommodation to be had at present, but follow the link below for good location maps on Eccy's own website.
Picture courtesy of: Dave Ridyard, Netwise Computing Limited.

St Abbs Head

St. Abbs Head benefits from a flow of Atlantic water entering the North Sea around the northern tip of Scotland and also from cooler Arctic influences. This results in a diverse mix of marine species from both cold and relatively warm water & enhancing interest for divers. The area also encompasses a variety of wrecks, including The Glanmire, Odense & Alfred Erlendson. Air fills are available from Eyemouth Diving Centre: (018907) 51202 & Scoutscroft Diving Centre: (018907) 71669 & an air compressor now operates at St. Abbs Harbour on busy weekends. The links below include St. Abbs Local Community Site, which encompasses maps, dive site reviews and loads of relevant information.

The Farne Islands

The islands lie about 1.5 to 6 miles off the North Sea coast and are preserved as a bird sanctuary by the National Trust. The area also has a population of grey seals that are known to approach divers and nibble at their fins!

The waters around the Farnes are crystal clear, and rich in nutrients, however they can also be very treacherous; shallow submerged reefs of sharp jagged rocks; strong tidal streams & down-eddies and the remoteness of some of the sites are a test of seamanship, equipment, experience and common sense.

Vobster Quay, Somerset

Situated 8 miles outside Frome Somerset, Vobster Quay offers a range of diving from 6m to 28m with a small area over 35m. Situated in a disused quarry the lake is one third of a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide.
Site boasts Air/nitrox fills, changing facilities, food etc., ample parking & two main access points to the water - keeping diver congestion to a minimum.
Training platforms have been placed at 6m, 9m, 14m, 17m, 25m and 30m and features include the old Crushing Works (16-22m); Stone delivery tunnel (30m long ascending to 14m); Block House & the wreck of the 42ft Cruiser Jacquin II (17m).

Trefor Pier, Lleyn Peninsula, Wales.

Description:
Easy to access shore dive within striking distance of both Dorothea and Pwllheli.
Advantages:
Free access
Easy entry
Tons of aquatic life
Parking on the shore.
Few other divers
Hazards:
Fishing off pier
No air fills/services
Fishing-rubbish below pier.
Closest Air fills:
Dive Shop, Trearrdur Bay, Anglesey. Joyce & the gang very helpful & shop useful for kit & spares.

Comfortably combined this attractive shore dive with a same-day visit to Dorothea, proving its worth as an add-on either to a Dorothea visit or to future Pwllheli trips where weather prevents sea-diving.
Trefor really couldn’t be easier for the ‘prepared’ diver, with free access, free parking practically on the beach and little surge or current, but should really be dived at high tide to ensure some depth. We managed 66 mins on 12l tanks and never got below 10 metres.
There is tons to see here, among the pier stansions including; octopus, lobster, monster spider crabs, zillions of edible crabs, dogfish, snake pipefish, ribbonfish, butterfish, several species of blenny, shanny, scorpionfish, cuckoo and corkwing wrasse, gobi, Irish Moss (lavabread) and many other types of seaweed.
Steps by the side of the pier provide an easy entry/exit point and it’s very difficult to get ‘lost’. I really enjoyed this dive, despite the submerged balls of spent fishing line and active sea-anglers operating off the pier.
Also excellent as a night dive when tides permit!

Ravenspoint Gulley, Trearrdur Bay, Anglesey

Description:
Easy to access scenic shore dive
Advantages:
Free.
Within 100 metres of Anglesey Diver Services shop.
Abundant aquatic life.
Public car park close to entry point.
Usually excellent visibility.
Hazards:
Strong longshore current at most times on seaward side of ‘island’
Popular site, so can get very busy at peak times. Many ribs launch in bay.
Closest Services:
Anglesey Diver Services (100m. Air fills £3)

Best dived on incoming/high tide for depth and least current. Walk off the beach& keep left to descend gently shelving seabed to approx 10m. Enter 50m long gully, teeming with life (max depth 13m). Offshore slate ‘island’ provides reef structure, where crevices are stuffed with lobster, edible crab, octopus etc. Also abundant are cuckoo & corkwing wrasse, plaice, gobi, , blennys, unusual 13 point sunstars, sponges etc. Gully eventually opens out to sandy sea bed with reef on right. We attempted circumnavigation of the central ‘island’ but were forced back by strong current. With air now limited, opted for return down opposite side of gully and simple exit to beach.

Porth Eilian, Amlwch, Anglesey

Description:
Easy to access scenic shore dive
Advantages:
Free.
Little current.
Good visibility.
Few other divers.
Easy beach entry.
Hazards:
Easy to become disoriented, take regular compass/visual bearings.
Boats/Jet skiers/sunbathers in hot weather so SMB is sensible
Parking is on roadside by roundabout, with a short walk (3mins)
Closest Services:
Anglesey Diver Services (air fills £3)

Sheltered by Point Lynas, the reef lies parallel to the beach. You can either hug the coastal part, with fissures, gullies etc (10m) or take a compass bearing straight out to sea – where you’ll come across less damaged reef at a max of 15m at high water. The structure of the slate provides tons of shelves crammed with life & is particularly popular with Curled Octopus, Edible & Velvet Swimming Crabs. Lots of butterfish here, also Tompot & Leopard-spotted Gobi. Use reciprocal bearing to exit at beach.
Alison Nicholson

Ellerton Lake, Catterick, North Yorks

An inland lake dive site situated about 3 miles from the A1, just south of the village of Scorton, near Catterick. It is a very large expanse of water catering for diving, fishing & other watersports and is open year round, including weekdays. Toilets, changing rooms and showers are next to a large car park and the lake. Adjacent are useful platforms for kitting up. A fee of £ 3.50 per day is charged for diving. The owner of the lake ‘does the rounds’ by car, so there’s no need to ‘report in’ before diving, which mostly centres round the north (car park) end. Max depth is around 10m with training platforms at 6m, ropes on the bottom link the platforms, cars, a van, concrete pipes to swim through and 4 sunken boats.
Usually few divers at site & well-populated with perch, carp, pike, bream, eel etc but silty bottom composition can present severe visibility problems at busy times & after rain/wind.
Air and a small PADI registered dive centre/shop are within 1/2 mile at Battye About Diving (www.battyeaboutdiving.co.uk), who are happy to give you a vis & status check by phone before you set off. Tel: 01748 810710/07779 005454. Food etc available in Scorton village

More about the facilities at Ellerton, including location map, through this link.

The National Dive Centre, Chepstow

This facility, opened in January 03, is close to both the M4 & M5 and has a depth range of 8 - 80 metres. Full training & rescue facilities are available, including a recompression chamber. Air, Nitrox & Trimix to 300 bar can be obtained from the main buildings, where there is also a shop and snack-van. The car park is large, but is not close to the water's edge. A free bus service operates on request. There is limited parking near the water, but a hike with kit is still necessary. Access to the water via wooden pontoons is excellent - when you've got your kit there - as is the water clarity (12-15m). The site is still under development, however, so underwater features are limited - these being arranged along a submerged quarry road around the perimeter of the site.
Click below for their website with full details & a location map.

Hodge Close

Caution Needed at this site: Access for EMS is difficult. Entry & Egress to Water is difficult. The water is VERY cold at all times of year. There is no mobile coverage at the quarry.

Signposted off Ambleside to Coniston road (map reference - Ordnance Survey map 'English Lakes SW area' 318017). The quarry owners will not grant permission for diving - but will not stop divers using the site at their own risk. Access to the lower car park and tunnel can be obtained by paying £4.00 per car at the house next to the track. Access to and from the water is challenging! Height above sea level - 155 metres.
Pay the man to move his fence post and park after crossing the stream. The stream leads to the quarry. There is no access to this site for wheelchair-bound divers.
Air Fills:
Capernwray is the nearest centre to the southern lakes. Located off junction 35 of the M6. Airfills £2.50 for a 12l. Clean facilities, shop and licensed restaurant.

UC 70, Whitby

UC-70 is a small U-boat of 417 tons and 49m in length, lying about 3 miles outside Whitby Harbour – close to the wreck of the Giralda, which was her last ‘victim’. The armament on this WW I U-boat included an 88mm gun, two forward-facing and one aft-facing torpedo tubes. These were outside the pressure hull and could not be reloaded underwater. But the main purpose of the sub was mine-laying, with a capacity of 18 mines loaded in six tubes near the front of the vessel. Today the UC70 lies in 27m of water with her bows to the south-east and stern to the north-west. It’s a really interesting site with quite a lot of life on the mostly in-tact wreckage, although visibility can be poor after heavy rain, because of mud and peat which is swept down the Esk and out to sea. Differential GPS co-ordinates are 54.31.597N 0.40.131W (degrees, minutes and decimals). This is a small wreck and can be difficult to locate without GPS. Brief tour of the wreck (1) Six mine-laying tubes, running vertically through the forward end of the hull. with a solid-looking cog on the end projects from the top of the hull (2) Vertical shaft which might have been the drive for an anchor winch. (3) Shaft with the skeleton of a bow hydroplane on either end resting on the seabed and a few assorted steel plates (4) Remains of the ballast tanks start about level with the fourth mine-laying tube. The ribs of the ballast tank are mostly intact, but the plates have rotted through or even fallen clear in several places, making it easy to look inside. (5) Open hatch with cover intact. (6) 88mm gun (7) Section of mast that used to house the search periscope then twisted plates where the conning tower has collapsed to port. (9) Hollow mast at the top of the conning tower, with the broken attack periscope retracted inside it (8) Protruding unidentified cylinder. (10) Ballast tank (11) Pair of pipes and valves which would once have been flush with the outer skin of the sub (12) Aft hatch, which is also open and in better condition than the forward hatch. (13) Rear hydro-planes. (14) Stern torpedo tube (15) Rear hydroplane assembly. WHEN TO DIVE: Slack water is 2 hours after high and low water at Whitby. Visibility is usually better on the high-water slack. LOCATION: From the south, leave the A1 on the A64 past York and continue to Malton. Then follow the A169 through Pickering and past Fylingdales to meet the A171 just west of Whitby. From the north leave the A1 on any one of a number of roads to Middlesbrough and Teesside. Once south of the river take the A171 to Whitby. In Whitby, continue along the A171 until you are in the valley, then turn left towards the harbour. The marina area is on the right just after the railway station and the slip is at the far end. AIR ETC: Yorkshire Diving Services, 2D larpool Industrial Estate, Whitby. 01947 603380