NORTH WEST SCOTLAND
An introduction
From Ardnamurchan Point to Cape Wrath, including the Western Isles
As you travel through the remote, wild, rugged beauty of the Western Scottish Highlands you will realise that you are in one of the UK's few true wilderness areas. Stop for a moment, breathe the crisp clear unpolluted air and marvel at the quality of the light. As you travel further north the roads twist and turn through the most spectacular scenery imaginable. Every turn opens up a vista seemingly more spectacular than the last.
This area is perhaps better known for it's range of outdoor activities, Climbing, walking, caving and skiing are all seasonally popular, but the effort a visiting diver takes to get to the area is rewarded when the seas reveal Scotland's best kept secret, its diving.
Despite being so far north, Western Scotland is warmed by the Gulf Stream, a blessing which brings warmer water than should reasonably be expected so far north. Underwater life is prolific. The literally hundreds of dive sites in the area cannot fail to impress, dives range from huge caverns, to spectacular caves simply teeming with fish, wrecks covered with soft corals and anemones, and some of the most terrific vertical walls.
The climate on the west of Scotland is greatly affected by prevailing westerly winds. Heavy with North Atlantic moisture the winds meet the mountainous coastline and the result is rain, lots of it! Locally winds vary due to the effect of valleys and high ground. Confining dive trips to the summer months is always the safest bet, however an advantage of this coastline is that there is almost always a sheltered shore from which to dive. Underwater visibility can be excellent and may approach 30 metres in the summertime and even better the further north you go. The best weather occurs during the long days of late May and June but water clarity is better in August and September although there is more chance of rain in these months.
There are a number of dive shops, diving centres, local dive clubs and charter vessels in the area, chiefly at Skye, Ullapool and Achiltabuie but when visiting the more remote areas consideration will need to be given to taking a portable compressor. There are several charter boats available in the different locations ranging from the day boat to the liveaboard for 12.
Skye offers some splendid diving with spectacular dive-sites, where exposed west facing cliffs, dive into high-energy tidal waters with excellent visibility, and offer abundant diving opportunities. Dynamic underwater scenery boasts awesome scenic diving, historic wreck diving, large underwater pinnacles, caves and reefs, as well as drift and night diving. Wrecks include such as the Urlana, Chadwick, Dorrick, Rhodesia, and Apollo together with the well-known site of the Port Napier. To the east of Skye the narrows of Kylerhea offer magnificent drift dives with up to 8 knots and depths of 15 to 30 metres surrounded by rock encrusted with marine life. The lucky diver can see Dolphin and Porpoise and perhaps even Whale or Basking shark!
The far north west, running down towards Ullapool, has around 15 miles of coastline passing through Loch Ewe, Gruinard Bay, Little Loch Broom and Loch Broom. Little Loch Broom has worthwhile diving notably at Ardross Rock, Conger Stack and Cadha nam Muc.
The Summer Isles lie around 12 miles north west of Ullapool offer extremely attractive diving and they are made up of around 30 islands with the better sites being found at Priest Island, Big Skerry, Bottle Island, Angus Stack and Conservation Cave on Tanera Beg. The waters around these islands are relatively shallow and tidal streams are not significant.
The nearest points of the Outer Hebrides lies some 20 miles off the west coast but offer spectacular diving. The islands are generally low lying but Harris is mountainous with hills rising to somewhere in the region of 3,000 feet. The east coasts of these islands are rocky and drop rapidly away into the depths but the west coast is fringed with beaches with the Uists boasting the most extensive beach in the UK with depth dropping slowly out to sea.
The northerly islands of Harris & Lewis offer shallow gullies packed full with marine life as they twist their way into the sea cliffs with visibility in the region of 20/30 metres and a very diverse fish life due to the meeting of the tidal streams flowing from the east and west. The port of Lewis has seen many vessels come and go over the years. The island itself is littered with many dispersed wrecks of fishing vessels and offshore there are many WW2 merchant ships. The inhospitable shores' gales and heavy seas have been the demise of many vessels. The waters, though cold, are clear and rich in marine life. Each cove, headland and bay is a possible dive site rich in discoveries, animal encounters and exploration opportunities.
Lying west and north of the Outer Hebrides are the Hebridean Outliers the best known of which is St Kilda. St Kilda has scenery in a class of its own with a combination of vertical walls, tunnels and gullies which many claim to be the Jewel in the crown of UK diving. The landscape of St Kilda was fashioned by volcanic action and the violent action of wind and water. About 60 million years ago, a rift in the northern continent caused widespread volcanic activity. The land between Hirta and Boreray collapsed inwards and St Kilda's jagged, eroded cliffs and sea stacks were thrown up. The incredible upheaval, which took place, has created some of the best cave and tunnel dives in Europe. With almost gin-clear visibility and, what has been described as the finest marine life in Britain, St Kilda is fast becoming a 'must' on the list of places to dive.
UK DIVE GUIDES
Books and guides to help you plan, and to take with you - buy on-line.
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Achiltibuie & The Summer Isles
St Kilda
Oban
Summer Isles Majic by Richard Booth
West coast liveaboard cruise by Richard Booth
The Corryveckan, Slate Islands by Richard Scarsbrook
Skye diving by Iain Paul
St Kilda by Andrew Martin
St Kilda on Gaelic Rose by Neil Smitham
Oban, The Hardboat and St Kilda by Alan Fitch
St Kilda: The Holy Grail of UK Diving?by Richard Booth
Doune Bay, Loch Knoydart by Jules Kelley
Doune Bay, Loch Knoydart by Shaun Hamilton
Loch Duich: Deep in Duich by Scott Laddiman
Typical St Kilda Liveaboard
Caves, Summer Isles
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