Scuba Diving
If you are looking for stunning marine life, spectacular scenery above and below the water, and good visibility then St Abbs & Eyemouth is the place to come. Whatever your level of qualification or experience, there is a wide variety of different dive sites to choose from.
Shore Diving
Boat Diving
Further Information
Useful Numbers
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SHORE DIVING
Relatively deep water close inshore and strong tidal movement combine to provide some of the best shore diving in Britain in and around the Marine Reserve. In fact, the most famous dive site at St Abbs is actually a shore dive off the harbour wall.
Cathedral Rock, with its unique double archway, is a mere 50m swim from the shore and a must see for any first time visiting diver. However, if you decide to dive off the harbour wall you may well not get as far as Cathedral as you may be distracted by the maze of superb, kelp-topped gullies and vertical walls encrusted with marine life. Just about every species found on this area of coast can be seen here at some time including the wolf fish. Seagull Rock, or Maw Carr, makes for a fantastic second dive at St Abbs as it does not involve the walk around the harbour wall, it is accessible direct from the car park, it has a maximum depth of about 12m, and is a pretty little dive with plenty of marine life to find.
St Abbs Harbour is not the only place where you can shore dive in the area; Greenends Gully and Weasel Loch at the Eyemouth end of the Reserve are well worth checking out. There is even a shore dive that is also a wreck dive, even if the remains of the Odense are fairly well spread out. In fact, wherever you can access the shore in or around the Marine Reserve will be worth a look.
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BOAT DIVING
Although the shore diving is some of the best in the UK, there are many other excellent sites that can only be reached by boat. Probably the most popular dive site in the Marine Reserve is Anemone Gullies, just NW of the lighthouse, where a series of rocky ridges run out from the cliffs. They range in depth from about 12m to 25m and are festooned with plumose anemones from which the site gets its name. Just minutes across the bay from St. Abbs harbour is Black Carrs, which is basically a tumble of huge boulders running from about 8m down. This is the best site in the Reserve for seeing wolf fish, with often several being found on one dive. The Hurkers, with its steep sided and undercut gullies, is probably the best dive site at the Eyemouth end of the Reserve. Also, remember that the Marine Reserve may have boundaries, but marine life doesn�t necessarily take any notice of these. Don't overlook the excellent dives that can be found off Fast Castle Head to the north west and Burnmouth to the south, all of which are easily accessed from St. Abbs or Eyemouth.
Surprisingly, for such an unforgiving stretch of coast, the Marine Reserve does not have a huge numbers of diveable wrecks, but with advances in technical diving more are being discovered and explored in the vicinity all the time. The two most dived wrecks within the Reserve are the Alfred Erlandsen, at Ebb Carrs just SE of St Abbs harbour and the Glanmire just off the lighthouse.
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FURTHER INFORMATION
Several licensed charter boats operate from both St Abbs and Eyemouth harbours, all with skippers who know the dive sites and the local conditions. Or you could bring your own boat, as there are slips for launching at both harbours, for a fee. If you opt for the latter, unless you are already familiar with where to dive, it is best initially to ask for a bit of guidance to save dropping onto a sand bottom and a whirling tide. Local skippers are usually happy to advise, as are the two dive shops in the area. Generally speaking, if you cannot time your dive for slack water or a period of limited water movement, it is better to dive to the north west side of St Abbs Head lighthouse on a falling tide and to the south side on a rising tide.
Both of the local dive shops offer the full range of services from providing air and nitrox fills, through sales, hire and repair of equipment, to instruction.
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USEFUL NUMBERS
St Abbs Harbourmaster: (018907) 71647
Eyemouth Harbourmaster: (018907) 50223
Aquastars Dive Shop, Eyemouth: (018907) 50904
Scoutscroft Dive Shop, Coldingham: (018907) 71669
MARINE LIFE RECORDING
Believe it or not, even though literally thousands of people dive in the Marine Reserve every year, we have relatively little information about the marine life of the Reserve actually recorded in databases where it can be used to help steer management of the Reserve and the wider marine environment. So, please help us out by filling in a Dive Survey Form for your dives when you fill in your log book � it doesn�t take 5 minutes!
We are particularly interested in records of various species which are either warm water, cold water or commercially important and these are highlighted on the form. However, it is also useful to get records of any other species that you see on your dives too. If you are concerned as to whether you will be able to identify the various target species, please see the ID sheets at St Abbs Harbour or in local dive shops.
Or, if you are trained in the art of Seasearch, why not make your dives in the Reserve Seasearch dives? Forms are available from the VMR trailer.