LOCHALINE - EASY ACCESS TO THE SOUND OF MULL by Douglas Short

Editors Note - This following article was written a few years ago. I have since has an email from the present owner, Philip Robertson.
Email: Philip.robertson@virgin.net to point out some new developments at the centre. Thanks Phil for the update.

Address:

Lochaline Dive Centre Dungrianach,Lochaline Morvern, Argyll, PA34 5XT (01967) 421627

Ian

Since we took over, we have put in a small shop selling spares, new compressor station, with a back up compressor, and hopefully we will be offering nitrox next year. The accommodation hasn't changed, and we still offer free moorings to visitors. We organise hard boat and rib hire for our residents, landing craft being not now available, using the wide number of boats on offer locally.

In addition, we are the Nautical Archaeology Training Centre for Scotland, and we can offer access, on specially organised open days, to the sound of Mull's two protected Wrecks, the Swan, and HMS Dartmouth.

Philip Robertson

It certainly is a great asset when the choice of dive location for a weekend makes for easy pleasurable no hassle diving. This certainly was the case earlier this summer when a party of divers from South Queensferry branch visited the Sound of Mull. Travel to Lochaline is marginally longer than going to Oban although it is necessary to cross the Corran Ferry which is 8 miles south of Fort William. Lochaline is about 30 miles further down the Lochaline/Fishnish ferry road. The road is mostly single track but constructed in such a way that for a lot of the way it is possible to see large distances ahead. This helps particularly if you are towing a boat when reversing over long distances can be a problem for the inexperienced.

The village of Lochaline sits at the Mouth of Loch Aline (surprise!!!!) and is very sheltered. The village is served by a local store which is also the petrol station. A pub, and a hotel with good pub grub is also nearby. We stayed in a six- berth caravan which was situated overlooking the ferry slip. There is also a high standard diver accommodation block. In another part of the village an old church has been completely renovated. The standard of accommodation in the old church is far too good for ruffty-tuffty divers. Seriously though, the old church looks like it would be very, very comfortable accommodation of a extremely high standard. The old church sleeps 10 persons. Provided for the diver’s other needs is a compressor. Assault craft hire, hard boat hire and free moorings are also provided. The moorings are on the continuous rope principle and make it easy to ‘park’ the boat overnight. There is also a good slip, part of which is shared with the ferry.

Lochaline is a quiet little village and its situation on the Sound of Mull makes it a excellent choice for easy access to the excellent diving around. It would be too easy and boring to now list all the dive sites which have been well covered in the dive .magazines and dive publications in the past. What follows is a personal view and selection of the sites that we visited that weekend.

THE WRECK OF THE ‘RONDO’ or ‘RONDA

This wreck is perhaps the most famous of the wrecks in the Sound of Mull apart from the ‘HISPANIA’. The ‘RONDO’ lies North East of Salen Bay on a rock called DEARG SGEIR (in English from the Gaelic "Red rock in the sea"). It was quite easy to find as some kind person had left a small buoy attached to what latter we found to be the stern. Divers entered the water and descended down what appeared to be a vertical wall of steel with old rope tangles at the shallow end. What followed was a peaceful drift down the almost vertical deck of a 80 metre long and 2000 ton vessel lying at a very unship like angle. A route was noticed under the keel as we passed 25 metres but I didn’t fancy that way because I am a little over average size. The rest of the dive consisted of a leisurely ascent to the surface making a mental note about the large numbers of plumrose emenies. (I really must get these teeth fixed).

The BALLISTA

Air requirements prompted a visit to the dive centre at Salen Pier on Mull. Richard Grieve runs this ‘dive centre’ and he was more than helpful with good fills of clean air. Do not be put off by the state of the land around Richard’s buildings. It looks as if a bomb had hit the area. The ‘bomb’ was, in fact, gales in March this year that completely demolished a caravan and part of the dive centre. A wander around the old pier was fascinating with lots of old ship bits around. Unlike me, ask permission first please.

The SLATE WRECK

This was an 18th century Welsh Smack carrying a cargo of slate. It lies in about 15 metres on a shelf of a cliff below RUBHA DEARG (Gaelic for ‘Red Promontory’). We found the wreck with little difficulty and underwater discovered a very broken up vessel. What was interesting was the large amount of very good quality slates around (better quality than on my roof). Swimming over to the underwater cliff edge it looked very dark below and as this was a second dive and the tide was running somewhat we decided only to venture a few metres deeper. A pleasant evening was spent in the local hotel after an excellent tea. The next morning we set out in bright blue sky, dead calm conditions to the two wreck sites we had decided on the night before.

THE WRECK OF THE THESIS

This wreck lies in 32 metres with the bows at 13 metres and the stern at 28 metres. We found the wreck after a fair bit of echo sounding in the area. Once we had moved over the wreck once it was fairly easy to repeat the exercise. We put down a grapnel and hooked something. I and buddy were elected to dive first. The tide was running and it was an effort to pull ourselves down the line. At 23 metres something red and shrivelled passed me heading down. It wasn’t my buddy but the surface buoy which was attached to the grapnel line.

The boat we later discovered had detached itself from this buoy and it had promptly sank (the buoy - not the boat). This didn’t impress me or my buddy much so we decided to ascend. Diving again with a larger buoy we found the grapnel hooked over the rail of the THESIS about 15 metres from the stern. What followed was a quick look around before decompression became a problem. At this point the tide had really started to motor. The rest of the team decided not to dive because of the increasing tidal stream. Oh well we can’t get them all right.

THE WRECK OF THE BALLISTA

This small and shallow wreck lies on the North-east tip of Eilean Rubha an Ridire (Gaelic for ‘Island off the Promontory of Ridire’). It was very easy to find as can be seen from the photograph. As a second dive it was very pleasant to swim around this fishing boat which was lost in 1975. The sea has taken its toll on this wreck but most parts of the wreck are easily accessible. The water clarity was excellent and the photograph of divers was taken from above the surface, standing on the weed covered wreck.

The Diver Guide to North West Scotland classes the Sound of Mull as ‘of a very high order’. It may be that the sites visited in this article are not of the very highest order with other sites in the Sound of Mull taking that place. However the dives we did were very pleasant indeed. I think that Lochaline is an excellent centre for exploring the Sound of Mull. We had a great time which was helped by blue skies and dead calm weather. I could thoroughly recommend it as a centre for an enjoyable time with all the things easily available that divers need. For more information contact the dive centre at Lochaline Tel. (01967) 421627.