The Skelligs

A few friends headed off to the west of Ireland for some diving on the famous skelligs islands for 2 days of diving. The National Geographic did an article about Ireland Underwater a while back and it was the skelligs that made the story come to life.

We dived from valentia island which is in Co. Kerry / West Ireland. There is a ferry and a bridge to get access. The local dive centre is run by Martin and Sandra Moriarty, a local husband and wife with over 20 years of experience in these waters. The dive centre caters for groups of up to 20. The centre is right on the pier and is well equipped with toilets, hot showers, changing & drying areas, classroom and meeting room, compressor, bottle bank and full equipment hire. The centre offers the usual PADI training courses starting with "Try a Dive". They have two dive boats; an 8.4m Humber RIB with inboard diesel engine licensed to carry 12 divers. However for comfort, Martin and Sandra prefer to take out 8-10. The other is a purpose built Lochin40 has cabin seating for 12 divers, a dive platform, toilet, VHF radio, radar, sounder, GPS/plotter and oxygen. This boat makes dive sites like the skelligs, and the Puffin easily accessable.

We arrived on the friday night to be ready for diving the next morning at 10:30am, as arranged. Of course, being over the west of Ireland on a friday evening with friends all raring to go we just had to taste the local guinness. And taste we did!

The weather driving down to valentia island from Dublin was very sunny and promised a great weekend diving ahead. Alais when we awoke the next morning in our hotel we found the weather was absolutely miserable. With rain pouring and wind blowing strong, we could not get out to the skelligs. Sandra would be able to take us to a closer dive site called Bray-Head. It was a short comfortable boat journey and we were kitted up and in the water in no time. The visibility was great but I think we were all looking forward to the skelligs and so the bray head dive site was, well, not what everybody was expecting....It was interesting enough with the usual suspects out like pollock, lobster, wrasse, etc...The dive profile was more along the seabead than any walls. With the weather the way it was, we really had no choice, that or nothing. We did two dives there and at the end of the day, everyone had something to say about them. We did some exploring of valentia island later in the evening as the weather started to clear up.

The next day the sun was splitting the clouds. The skelligs were looking like a real possibility. Most of our group had driven hundreds of miles just to do this dive site, and boy were we in for a fantastic day of diving.

The boat journey is about 1hour 20 mins and we take 2 tanks as we will be out for the day. The skelligs are 2 similar looking islands, easily named, Big and Small. We dived Big skellig first.

As you decend you see the blackness beneath you. Plenty of jellyfish to take pictures on the way down. Passing the kelp you come to a wall type of dive. But the walls seem to be alive..actually no, they are alive, but with colourful jewul anenomes. Its a site to behold. Moving further along, shoals of pollock pass us by, spiny lobsters peer out from the walls and myself and my buddy sean, enjoy our weightlessness along the wall.

It was a typical dive profile going down to 30 meters and slowly working our way back up. After everyone was out and calming down from the great dive, we went over to little skellig (about 10 mins away) and had lunch. This island is absoutley covered in gannets (and you can smell it from a distance too). It was another wall dive. This time though it was not just myself and the other divers, but a few playful seals too. They promptly proceeded to do their thing and start nipping our fins.

We were having so much fun on the dive it was probably my best dive to date. Ireland has some of the best diving in the world. We dont need any giant manta rays or whale sharks here! no, no, for here in Ireland we have our clear gin water, stunning walls full of life and seals that will make you laugh so much your mask will keep flooding. Oh and the Guinness I hear is quite nice too The Skelligs was awesome, and my first time there. I would hope to get back there again if time allows. Its just a pity we only got to dive them one day. As the man says, Ill be back.

Cheers D

Diving along a wall

Diving along a wall

Seal Encounter

Looking at a lobster

On the boat