Dive Sites of South West Mull
By Geoff Hide
Diving in Mull, to many divers, conjures up visions of many of the popular dive sites of the Sound of Mull like the wrecks of the Hispania, Rondo or Thesis. However, a number of interesting dive sites such as wrecks and cliff dives can be found around the south west extremities of Mull. Much of this area of Mull is not frequently dived and opportunities exist to explore novel dive sites. In this article, I will describe some dive sites that members of Edinburgh University Sub Aqua Club have dived over the years.
1. Wreck of the Ostend
The wreck of the Ostend lies across the entrance to Loch Caol in about 6-8m of water. In 1943 she was towed into this bay on fire. As she was carrying considerable amounts of ammunition, the inevitable happened, she blew up and bits of her were left scattered over a wide area of sea bed. Our first dive on her, in 1981, started off with a rope search exercise followed by a drag search with the boats grapnel. Once we finally found the wreck it became apparent that we had been lucky not to snag live ammunition! The seabed was littered with it -cases of shells, loose shells and hand grenades! The wreck, happily, has now been cleared by the Navy and all that remains of her is a few plates. She does, however, make a reasonable dive in poor weather conditions.
2. Rubha Breac
If you study the chart of the area at the entrance to Loch na Lathaich, you find an area just on the eastern shore where the submarine contours merge together. A sure sign of an underwater cliff!
Sure enough, at Rubha Breac, a cliff can be found. There is a nice dive down a rock slope to 25m. A considerable amount of marine life can be seen on this slope. At 25m the bottom disappears! A vertical wall down to some 70m can then be found. The visibility in this area is usually very good, making this cliff dive superb.
3. Bunessan Pier
At 4-6m depth this dive might not seem very exciting. However, at night it is a different matter altogether. The fishermen dump lots of fish debris off this pier and all sorts of creatures appear at night to scavenge. The first thing that is apparent when you get underwater is that the sea bed is moving, until a closer inspection reveals that a carpet of crabs and hermit crabs are devouring the fish remains. The remnants of fish heads, staring blankly at you from the carpet of crabs, give the site an eerie feeling. Although we didn’t see one, huge congers have been seen under the pier supports.
4. Port na Croise
On the northern shore of Loch Scridain, another cliff dive can be found. Good visibility and abundant marine life make this cliff well worth a dive. The section we dived was sheer from the surface down to 30m and then a mud slope disappeared away below us. This whole section of coastline would be well worth exploring.
5. Uisken Tunnel
According to the chart, the coastline on the South side of the Ross of Mull is fairly shallow and rocky. Yes, the chart is accurate - we found that the bottom was shallow and rocky! Large kelp forests made progress slow and not very exciting. We did, however, discover a small rock tunnel just west of Uisken where we had launched. Although, the tunnel is not very impressive it did house considerable marine life.
The tunnel is about 10m long, lies at a depth of 8m and the access is from the seaward side. The inshore end finishes with an abrupt wall that leads vertically to a small pool enclosed within rock. I suspect that during rough weather this tunnel acts as a blow-hole.
6. Wreck of the Meldon
The Meldon was a small collier which sank on the 3rd March 1917 when she hit a mine. The 2514 ton ship lies upright in 15m of water. Her rudder post shows at low water and this makes life easier for finding her as there are few potential transits along this section of coastline. Below the rudder post, the prop can be seen intact. The condition of the wreck deteriorates as you move towards the bow. This wreck makes a very nice dive - with lots of nooks and crannies to explore.
7. Wreck of the Maine
The Maine was a hospital ship that sank off Frank Lockwoods Island in 1917. Very little of her remains. The most wreckage we found were scattered pieces that lay in the channel between Frank Lockwoods Island and Mull at a depth of 10m. We were not convinced that this wreckage belonged to the Maine as another ship, HMS Barham, also sank here. We found no wreckage at all on the seaward side of Frank Lockwood's Island. Considerable wreckage lies on the beach in this area and presumably this belongs to either the Maine or the Barham. Considerable opportunities exist for some exploratory diving as few divers make it to this part of Mull. Further offshore, lie the Torran Rocks. These are so extensive that wherever you dive on them you are likely to be in a new site!