Western Ireland

With good wrecks and stunning marine life the west of Ireland is renowned for its diving. Four DIVE readers give their verdicts. Kate Quarry reports


Irish Ireland - John Boulter

John Boulter, 51, is a mechanic and works for a bus company. He lives in Swaddlingcote in South Derbyshire, and has been a diver for 20 years. A BSAC advanced diver and open-water instructor, he is a member of Swaddlingcote SAC.

We usually have a week’s holiday each year with the club. We’ve visited Plymouth, the Isle of Skye, and the Isles of Scilly, and last year we went to Ireland for the second time – we’re going again this year, too. The diving operator we use is Valentia Island Sea Sports. The diving there is very laid back and there’s so much to see. I prefer scenic to wreck diving and I really enjoy the corals and fish life at Valentia Island: you see lots of wrasse, cod, pollack, conger eels, lobster and crayfish.

The visibility is very good – it varies from 10m to 20m, depending on the weather. But, whatever the weather, Martin and Sandra (who run Valentia Island Sea Sports) always find somewhere to dive. It’s all boat diving. They have one hardboat and a RIB, and use a friend’s RIB when things get really busy. Our group, which varies from six to ten people, always stays at Sandra and Martin’s bed and breakfast. In the evenings we eat at local restaurants and bars. We often go to the Boston at the top end of Valentia Island, which has good food.

You reach Valentia Island by ferry from Kerry. Our group goes in a minibus, taking the ferry from Swansea to Cork, then driving to Kerry and getting the ferry again. Taking the minibus on the ferry works out cheaper than taking several cars full of people, and we always fuel up in Ireland, as it’s a lot cheaper there. Ireland is very relaxing, and the island’s particularly good if you like walking. We usually go in July, and try to arrange our trip when there are neap tides – if you keep to those, you can’t go far wrong. I’ve got a computer programme called Autotide that works it out for you. The diving’s easy – Martin and Sandra always brief you, drop you on the right spot, and the boat’s always there when you surface.

I’ve had some really good dives around Valentia Island. There’s one wreck just outside the dive centre, called the Granite: it’s very small, but has a lot of sea life, including every type of fish you’d expect to see there, as well as congers and lobsters. You can keep going round and round the wreck, and you’ll find something new each time. Some of the conger eels are an amazing size, which I’d put down to the area not being overfished, and the numbers of crayfish and lobsters are partly because divers are not allowed to bring them up. The Cave Dive is also great – it’s in an absolutely massive cave, where you have to be a bit cautious, but, nonetheless, it’s a good dive. I love Ireland and have dived in other parts of the country, but I find Valentia Island more laid back, as well as more economical. We’ll be back again this summer.


Wreck to relish - Jeremy Quinn

Jeremy Quinn, 43, is a computer consultant who lives in London. He learned to dive six years ago, and has dived places such as Poland and Sudan, but does most of his diving around the UK. He has had three diving holidays in western Ireland, the two most recent trips being to Baltimore in Cork. The first time I went to Ireland I dived the Skelligs, which was marvellous. The pinnacles are covered in life as far down as you can go, and we did them over and over again. In the area there are also great places to dive on the mainland. One of the most incredible places I’ve ever dived was Duchalla Head in St Finan’s Bay, which has square-cut gullies that join up like crazy paving, with lobsters, seals, dogfish, wrasse and little openings with sandy bottoms that look like gardens.

On our next trip we were based in Baltimore, but we spent the week twiddling our thumbs, as the weather was so dreadful. It was June, but the wind was Force 8, gusting up to Force 9, which we measured on a wind-speed gauge one of our group had, and all you could see out at sea was the spray of breaking waves. We were only able to dive the wreck of the Kowloon Bridge on the last day, so we returned to Baltimore the following year for another try. This time the weather was perfect, and the diving was great: we did Fastnet Rock and the U-260, which was impressive. The submarine is at 45m and the visibility was so good – about 30–40m – that at that depth we didn’t need torches, as it was like bright daylight.

The dive centre we used, Aquaventures, is run by a nice couple, Jerry, a TDI instructor, and Rhianne, a PADI instructor. They’ve got a very good set-up, with a lovely bed and breakfast, which is very popular at weekends. I am a bit of a wrekkie, but I also enjoy good scenic diving, and the area around Baltimore has both. The Kowloon Bridge is an astonishing wreck: I’ve only dived the forward section so far, but I’m planning to do the stern on trimix. The wreck’s about 500m long, with the bottom of the bow, which is upright, in 40m, and the top in 6m. The bow is covered with anemones and there are loads of big old lobsters, as divers are not allowed to take shellfish, or to remove items from wrecks in Ireland. You see huge wrasse, and my buddy once saw a solitary dolphin on the wreck.

There is wreckage scattered around at 30–35m, which is fun to explore, and you can get inside the bow and explore it down to about 45m through the lift and ventilation shafts. The cargo holds are the size of football pitches. It’s a great site for divers of mixed abilities, as there’s so much to see even up at 6m. Fastnet Rock is a very scenic pinnacle 20 miles out to sea. On one trip we saw a group of dolphins who broke off from their hunt to play in the wake of the RIB, and we then realised that a pilot whale was hunting with them. It’s a great area for whales and dolphins: someone who works at the dive centre went out on a whale-watching boat that has set up there fairly recently, and saw a pod of 40 sei whales and so many dolphins that they gave up counting them. There’s also a lot of very nice scenic diving with beautiful little shallow areas where seals will approach you. As I’ve only really done a week’s diving in Baltimore, there’s still a lot to dive, and I hope to do the Lusitania and some of the really deep wrecks on trimix.


Doing the Conger - Fiona Birmingham

Fiona Birmingham, 39, has dived with Scubadive West, near Galway, seven times over the past few years. She and her husband, Brian, who live in Northamptonshire, visit the area with groups of divers from their local BSAC branch in Northampton and other clubs. Fiona, who is a BSAC advanced diver and also a diabetic, learned to dive ten years ago.

I first dived Galway on a trip organised by someone else. Twelve of us went to a caravan site near Scubadive West, and I fell in love with the place – it was so peaceful and the diving was so beautiful. Then Brian and I organised a trip ourselves: we rented a couple of houses, and we’ve done this several times now. When we go this year it will be our seventh visit. We take 12 people in a minibus, leaving at 9pm on a Friday, and drive though the night to arrive at the houses at about 1pm the next day. We get the ferry from Holyhead to Dunleary and have breakfast just outside Dunleary. Shortly before we arrive there we stop to have a look around Galway.

Our diving trips to Galway are usually for one week. You can do shore dives, but it’s mainly boat diving. There are loads of fish, and we’ve seen dolphins and basking sharks. The underwater scenery, with all the anemones, is beautiful. The visibility is usually about 20m, but sometimes it’s a lot more and can seem like miles. There are cave dives, and three years ago a wreck was sunk not far from Scubadive West, so they do try to please all divers. Occasionally it’s a bit windy, but it’s never caused us to miss a dive, as there’s always somewhere protected. One site that’s quite good if you get slightly blown out is Conger Alley, where the congers wait to be fed. The first conger eel I ever saw came swimming up through my legs on that site! There are fantastic brittlestars there, and it’s really colourful, like being on a different planet.

We’ve dived the Galway area in June, July, August and September, and underwater all these months are good. When we went at the end of June the water was so flat calm that, for the first time ever, I wasn’t seasick. I can’t stand diving if it’s all a rush, but at Scubadive West there’s never a rush. The boat leaves at 10am and gets back about 5pm, when you’ve done two dives. You don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, so it’s more like a holiday, not just a dive trip. It’s so remote and peaceful there. In the evenings we do cook occasionally, but usually go to a pub in the local village where the food is really good. Sometimes we eat in the next village, which is described as ‘just down the road’, but that can take 20 or 30 minutes in the minibus down twisty roads. The nearest big town is more than ten miles away. It’s great if you like scenery and having the beach to yourselves. Further south it’s more expensive, as there are more tourists. We’ve dived in a lot of places, including Malta, Corfu, Swanage, Oban and the Cornish coast, but don’t go too far because we have a dog. We keep returning to Ireland because we’re always raving about the diving, and at Scubadive West, which we’ve watched grow over the years, the people look after us.


Basking glory - Paul Kennelly

Paul Kennelly, 55, is a builder who lives in Benson, Oxfordshire. He learned to dive in 1988 and is now a BSAC open water instructor. He is married with two sons and three grandsons, and his wife, Gill, is also a diver. Over the past seven years they have dived numerous times with Waterworld at Castlegregory, near Tralee in County Kerry.

I’d done a lot of diving in the Mediterranean and decided for a change to dive in Ireland, near Tralee, where we have relatives. We booked with Waterworld and, after we’d booked, but before we went on the holiday, I met Ronnie Fitzgibbon’s son [Ronnie runs Waterworld] at one of the dive shows. I knew immediately that we’d done the right thing, just from the way that he spoke about his family, who run the dive operation. That first year we went three times, and we still go every year. We fell in love with the Fitzgibbon family and the area, which is so beautiful. We’ve now built a bungalow over there, and it’s easy to go for long weekends, as you can get return fares from Ryanair for £19, flying Stansted to Kerry airport, which is only 30 miles from Castlegregory. A friend who used to visit Waterworld with us, Gary Marcham, didn’t want to say goodbye on his second or third trip – I’ve never seen a man get so emotional. Ronnie said he could stay with him, so Gary sorted out his affairs in England, moved to Ireland and now works as an instructor at Waterworld!

We usually dive in May, when the sun always seems to shine and there’s tremendous marine life due to the Gulf Stream and, usually, very good clarity, often up to 35m. I dived Pollack Alley on a lovely day in May, and down at 28m you could see the dive boat at the surface, clear as clear. My buddy was tapping his depth gauge – he obviously couldn’t believe the visibility!

There’s always somewhere to dive, whatever the weather, and you have the choice of canyons, drop-offs and gullies or the Letterbox – a huge swim-through in the rock. Breakfast is at 9am and the boats leave at 10am from the jetty, which is about 100 yards from the house. After two dives it’s back for lunch, then you can do more diving, watersports, or there’s loads of sightseeing. The pubs are excellent and the nearest is a five minute walk or a ten minute stagger.
The jetty is good for training dives, and the night diving there is superb: the crab boats throw all the dead stuff over the side, so at night the scavengers come out to eat – it’s beautiful. The only drawback is that in May you can’t night dive until about 10pm. During the day you can see pilot whales, basking sharks, seals and, often, pods of dolphins, as well as spiny crayfish, lobsters, big angelfish, dogfish and blue sharks. The colours underwater are stunning, especially with all the anemones. The water is two degrees warmer than here, and the Irish don’t use drysuits, but I’m a bit of a Jessie, so I do!

At the house, which is part of the dive centre, they’ve got 14 ensuite rooms, as well as a pool, sauna, lecture rooms and drying area and a restaurant. They’ve got about 35 sets of rental equipment, a nice boat and they do nitrox. I can’t sing Waterworld’s praises enough. The diving’s a lot of fun and they’ve got a superb safety record. It’s all a family-run thing, and you feel like part of their family when you’re there: nothing is too much trouble for them.