20/06/2026
Summer Isles
Hagar and I went to Old Dornie, on the Coigach peninsula north of Ullapool, last Friday for a dive weekend with Stirling SSAC. We launched the boat on Friday evening to take advantage of the tide and put her on a Visitors' mooring.
The following morning was rainy and breezy and the GPS/Sounder was acting up as well when we set off to Black Rock, which the Stirling group had dived before. It was a bit lumpy there so we headed in behind Tanera Beg instead for what turned out to be a very indifferent warmup dive on a mud and w**d bottom with not much life. I did see a number of big old scallops, though, which is a good sign as I think the site had been previously dredged. The afternoon dive was down a rocky, bouldery slope near Glas-leac Mor, quite scenic but not much life.
Weather on Sunday was lovely, but still a bit breezy. Plan was to dive the Fairweather trawler shipwreck in Annat Bay, across from Ullapool in Loch Broom. Without a sounder or a marker buoy, an open water shipwreck is usually a bit of a challenge but enter the Garmin/Navionics Boating App, which had the same map as the defective GPS, plus some bottom relief data and a sonar scan of the wreck itself.
The first attempt to get the shot on to the wreck using the App was not successful and Mark and Aine got a dive on HMS Vicinity instead. The next attempt was a resounding success, with the shot landing less than 1m from the hull and a good dive was had by the rest of the party. The wreck sits intact and upright in about 24m and every surface pretty much is covered in plumose anemones.
After a picnic lunch on Isle Martin, we dived a site called 'Waterfall', a wall on the mainland opposite Isle Martin. The wall dropped vertically into the black in places and was quite dramatic but didn't have much life on it.
Monday weather was also lovely for dives on Black Rock and Priest Island. I had to abort the Black Rock dive as my suit dump valve would not operate but managed the last dive on Priest Island. This was the most 'abundant' dive, with lots of colourful life. Unfortunately, I was totally stressed during the dive as my harness weights slipped to the front which made me keep on going face down and this persisted on to the surface, which was a bit unsettling. We had to can the last pair's dive as we had arranged assistance from a nearby fish farm to recover the boat up a gravel beach as two fishing boats were on the public slipway. Overall, a great weekend, good company and good crack. A possible future Stirling SSAC expedition to Caithness was mooted.....
