by Frances Cook
This is an account of our recent diving trip to Ireland. The first week was spent with Ballinskelligs Watersports in County Kerry and the second week was at Kilchrohane overlooking Dunmanus Bay in County Cork.
Early this September we set off to Pembroke, Wales to catch the ferry operated by B&I line to Rosslare, Ireland. The ferry sailings and accommodation in the self-catering 3 bedroom cottage for the first week had all been arranged by Sean Feehan, dive operator of Ballinskelligs Watersports. He asked a favour of us and that was to get him cigarettes and Heineken lager, quantity unspecified but large amount implied. This we duly did, much to my discomfort especially when glances and remarks were thrown our way about the goods we were carrying. After all we did not fit the description of typical lager louts.
Four hours later we arrived at Rosslare and soon found a nearby campsite to pitch a tent for the night. We set off early the next morning driving through the counties of Wexford, Waterford and Cork before reaching the Ring of Kerry road taking us to Ballinskelligs. We finally made it to Dungegan, a small village just outside Ballinskelligs, in the middle of the afternoon and went straight to the pub where we were told that Sean would be coming to greet us. The whole village, which consisted of 1 pub, 1 church, 1 general store and a smattering of houses was fairly deserted. We met Sean after about half an hour's wait and were taken to his home which had a beautiful view of Ballinskelligs Bay and Harbour. He was very pleased to receive his Heineken and cigarettes. Sitting in his kitchen we waited for his boat, the Miss Fiona skippered by his son Gary, to come in with three divers and Damien who was helping Sean for the Summer. We were at the pier to meet the divers, Mary-Jo, Ian and Victor who had just finished their last dives there and were enthusiastic about the diving they had done. Victor told us that if during our dives we did not see any crawfish then we must be blind. That night we were all invited to Sean's house and stayed on till 3:30 am polishing off the Heineken we had brought with us.
Late next morning we turned up at Sean's and said goodbye to the three divers. The group we were diving with would not arrive till later in the day and Sean was pessimistic about getting a dive in at all. This was rather disappointing as the weather was quite good and we were eager to start diving. There were two BSAC groups diving with us that week. We met up with our group of 12 divers on the jetty. They hailed from 3 university dive clubs in London and were a fairly young lot. We were the oldest divers in the group! Another group of 12 from Hemel Hempstead arrived in a van at about the same time. Sean directed them to stow their dive kits on his 36 ft hard boats. The HH group had the slightly bigger but toiletless boat, the Dualla, while our group occupied the Miss Fiona which fortunately had a toilet much to the relief of the female members of the party! John and I started talking to some of the divers when all of a sudden we heard loud abusive language containing many f-words being hurled at the driver of the HH van by a local fisherman who was waving an iron bar in a threatening manner at the same time. It turned out that the divers had been asked once, politely, to move their vehicle and answered that it would be moved as soon as it was unloaded (which it nearly was already). Shortly afterwards the fisherman had returned with the iron bar. We were all rather taken aback by this incident but as Sean later explained the unfortunate fisher man was suffering from a depressive illness for which he was receiving (apparently none too effective) treatment.
Sean's operation promised 8 hard boat dives per week which generally means 4 days of diving. Most divers bring their own equipment including cylinders and weights, however the latter are available for hire if required. Although this part of Ireland faces the usually turbulent waters of the Atlantic, Sean is able to find many sheltered diving sites due to the rugged nature of the coastline. The divers meet in the pub every night and Sean would give a weather update and dive briefing if diving seemed possible for the next day. On the first evening he also stipulated that divers should have 50 bar reserve air still in their cylinders on return to the boat making this his only strict rule saying that anyone who failed to meet the requirement would not be allowed to continue diving. His justification for this was that we would be doing deep dives later in the week and he wanted good safety margins and a demonstration of diving discipline.
The second dive was at Lamb's Head with John almost losing his mask when he made a backward roll entry over the 4 ft side of Miss Fiona. Here there was a lot of kelp down to 19m and swimming amongst it were several types of wrasse, Ballan, Cuckoo and Gold sinny. An inquisitive dogfish came close and allowed me to stroke it briefly before moving away.
Although very exciting by East Anglian Standards we found both these dives rather disappointing as we had been hyped up to expect great things, however the diving from then onwards improved considerably.
The next day's diving was on the Eastern side of Scariff Island and Hog's Head. There was a big swell when we got underway and this affected some of our group. By the time we got to the dive sites we were more than ready to get underwater. The viz was good at around 10 m but occasionally dropping to 5 m at Hog's Head. There was more kelp at Hog's Head but apart from that the rocky terrain, gullies and walls with numerous crevices were similar. In these crevices we found crawfish, prawns, crabs and the occasional small fish. On the walls were corals, big yellow boring sponges and various anemones. We spent just over 40 minutes on each dive site and reluctantly came up when we were too cold to explore further. During the course of the week I came to feel envious of all the dry-suited divers in the party.
Most divers ate out in restaurants in the nearby towns of Cahirciveen and Waterville. Eating out can be quite expensive. We found a pub serving locally caught seafood at reasonable prices in Port Magee. After dinner we went down to the local pub which does not start to come to life until 10 pm. Dancing with traditional Irish music and quiz nights are held weekly and the pub is packed out on these nights. During these events the pub curtains are drawn at midnight (nominal closing time) but alcohol was still being served behind the drawn curtains.
The quiz night we attended was great fun. In small groups we attempted to answer questions like "What was the name of the Irish Bishop who died recently?". Sean and his sons tried to help us out in answering some of these Irish questions even if some of the answers they provided were wrong.
Though Sean appeared laid back and easy going he was serious about his 50 bar back on the boat rule. After the second day's diving he confronted the HH group and told them that he was not filling some members' cylinders as they had breached this rule. There was quite a bit of disagreement over how much air reserve was acceptable. The HH group were deeply unhappy and at one point almost accepted Sean's offer to end their holiday with a full refund. This they probably would have done if they could have found anywhere else to take their diving at short notice. In the absence of this possibility though they eventually were forced to accept Sean's ruling, apologise and promise to stick to it for future dives. Despite the apology we learned privately that they still did not accept the rule and were very unhappy. When we returned home we checked up on the BSAC ruling on reserve air. On page 6 of the BSAC Sports diver workbook it states:
"dives deeper than 25 m warrant a reserve of not less than one quarter of cylinder capacity since cylinder contents gauges show a red sector from 0 to 50 bar, most accept 50 bar (between 1/4 and 1/5 of cylinder capacity) as the normal reserve level. ...Aim to surface with the greater part of the reserve air still in the cylinder"
Literally interpreted this means somewhere between 25 and 50 bar left at the end of the dive. It seems that both parties to the dispute took opposite extreme interpretations of this advice.
We did not dive on Tuesday as the weather had deteriorated. Instead we went round the beautiful Ring of Kerry with its Fuschia hedgerows in bloom, spectacular coastline, scenic mountain views and unattended cows on the road. We came across John, an 80 year old, who was hitching a lift. He wanted us to take him to the cemetery in the next town to attend a funeral. Life goes on at a slower pace, but we soon got used to it. Evenings were spent reading and sitting in front of the turf fire in the cottage before going out to the pub.
On Wednesday the weather had improved and we set off to the Skelligs at the uncustomary early time of 9 am. Both of us were glad we had taken Stugeron tablets as the fairly heavy swells caused quite a few people to be sea sick on the twelve mile, one and a half hour trip. The Skelligs are a couple of small rocky islands in the Atlantic. Our dive destination, Skellig Michael, has a landing stage where in Summer from Sunday to Tuesday boatloads of tourists climb a treacherously steep path to the peak 213 m high. The remains of an Augustinian Monastery dating back to the 7th century and abandoned in the 11th century can be seen at the top. We were unable to land on the island as it was off limits from Wednesday to Saturday each week because of archaeological work. Apparently divers often climb up to the peak during their surface interval and after fairly deep dives, but one wonders whether this is advisable.
We got into the water near the landing stage and soon came upon the top of a pinnacle just 7m down. There was kelp near the top but that disappeared as we descended down the side of the pinnacle. Soon we were at 42 m and we could still see the rest of the pinnacle sloping more gently away towards the deep. It was completely covered in jewel anemones, yellow sponges, orange and purple anemones, with this incredible spectacle repeated on other sub-pinnacles. We came across huge Ballan wrasse, big sea cucumbers and just one lobster - the only lobster we saw in Ireland. Strangely enough we saw far fewer crabs and lobsters here than in Norfolk. By the time we surfaced the swell had increased, so the second dive which had been planned for Little Skellig had to be abandoned. We headed towards Bolus Head back on the mainland.
Marine life on this wall dive included more dogfish, crawfish and a well-camouflaged scorpion fish. There were also many sponges and dead mens-fingers. This was really a good dive but even so seemed disappointing compared to the dive at Skellig Michael.
For our final day's diving our group was given the option of going out to the Skelligs again or doing another dive at Bolus Head. As many had been affected by the swell the previous day there was some lack of enthusiasm for going out to the Skelligs, however after some persuasion by other more bullish divers the decision was made to go anyway. If anything the swell was worse than the day before and by the time we reached our destination most of us just wanted to get into the water. We circled Skellig Michael but it was too rough to put divers down. Eventually a spot was found in the lee of Little Skellig which was reasonably sheltered. A couple of seals were seen off one of the headlands, poking their heads out of the water.
Little Skellig is home to thousands and thou sands of sea-birds. So many in fact that the entire appearance of the island is changed even from a distance. The island is whitened both by the birds themselves and by their droppings. It is also so steep everywhere at the water's edge that it is completely inaccessible by boat. During the breeding season divers have to get into the water as quickly as possible so as avoid being whitened themselves. Fortunately for us it was the end of the breeding season and we were relatively safe.
Underwater the wall continued steep, nearly vertical, with occasional overhangs and could just be seen to be bottoming out at around 40 m. Had the viz been really good we could have appreciated the scale and beauty of it better. What we did see was impressive enough with more sponges and anemones if not quite as thick as they had been on the pinnacle at Skellig Michael. Due to the heavy swell we were again forced to head back toward Bolus head for the second dive. The dive site chosen was a few hundred metres along from the previous day. Instead of sheer vertical walls we came across a jumble of rocks with cracks and crevices which were inhabited by the usual prawns, crabs, crawfish and other tiny fish. It was an enjoyable final dive with Ballinskelligs Water-sports.
We left Ballinskelligs the next morning after spending most of the night at Sean's house drinking and dancing. It was also a last chance to say goodbye to our fellow divers from London. Not a bad bunch really though prone to horseplay such as throwing each other overboard with surreptitiously unzipped drysuits! We felt sorry for Maggie who only dived three times during the whole week as she suffered badly from sea-sickness.
Our next stop was Kilchrohane on the Sheep's Head Peninsula in Cork. The Northern side faces Bantry Bay with the South facing Dunmanus Bay. We stayed at a guest house (B&B & evening meal) owned by Marion and Lyndon Sheehan. Lyndon, who is a diver, sometimes takes divers out on his fishing boat. Unfortunately he was unable to take us out as he was still recovering from a recent road traffic accident. However he did show us some of the places where we could do shore dives safely. He also owned a compressor and a number of cylinders so we never went short of air. The compressor was in a shed at the bottom of the garden and was quite an amazing home-made device consisting of a small car engine and various drive belts connecting it to the compressor stages. Although the air smelt a bit odd it did us no harm and later back home Ron at Diveline checked our cylinders and found them absolutely free of any oil (thanks Ron!).
We selected Duneen pier facing Dunmanus Bay for out first shore dive. It can be dived at any state of the tide. Entry into the water was either by a stride entry or by using the pier steps. At 2-3 m depth we were in kelp and saw various types of colourful seaweed sheltering small fish fry, painted topshells and blue-red limpets grazing on the kelp. We headed out towards a very small island in the harbour but its sides were also covered in kelp. About 50 m further out a mooring chain was attached to a large lump of concrete on the now sandy bottom. As we got close to it I saw a scallop rise from the bottom and swim towards John. By the time I had attracted his attention it had sunk down onto the bottom again and would not repeat its party piece even with gentle encouragement. We swam round the mooring chain and suddenly encountered a grey seal beside it. For about two minutes we stared at the seal while he stared back! It then swam off and disappeared behind a bank of kelp a few feet away. Next we saw it peering at us from between the kelp before disappearing again. We swam on towards a cave close to the pier and at the entrance were joined by the grey seal yet again, which followed us into the cave. Impatiently it took the lead and we followed it deeper into the cave which was gradually getting darker and narrower. John could see its eyes illuminated by his torch beam staring back at us from the cave depths but we decided not to follow it any deeper. We swam back to the pier again and while we were doing our safety stop the seal re-appeared and gave a swimming demonstration. As we were getting cold we reluctantly completed our stop and surfaced. Whilst dekitting and talking enthusiastically about the dive we heard a bark and found the seal looking at us with a hopeful expression that we might again join it in the water. I told it we would come back some other time!
In fact we did three more dives at this site and found some more interesting marine life like a Conger eel and a three-bearded rockling, brick-red with bold dark blotches on its long sinuous body, which we mistook for an eel at the time. Armed with bigger torches we decided to enter the cave again. In the dark our torches picked out crabs, prawns, various star fish and an unidentifiable red sponge. The further in we went the narrower and shallower the cave became until it was wide enough for only one diver abreast. John, who was ahead, saw a seal right at the back of the cave on two further occasions, but it didn't come out to play with us. This was a great disappointment for me but we dared not go too far into the cave for fear of what might happen if the seal felt trapped. It is a bit of a puzzle why this seal chose to live alone at the back of a small dark cave; perhaps it was just trying to live a solitary life and avoid interference from pesky divers like us.
Our other shore dive site faced Bantry Bay near the tip of the peninsula. It was a less sheltered site than Duneen pier but we were told by Lyndon that there were several "safe" caves and gullies worth exploring if the weather became sufficiently calm. Entry into the water was via the very steep slipway which was thickly covered in green algae. This created a problem of safe exit from the water. We over-came this by borrowing a thick length of rope and tying one end to a rusting but sturdy metal post. The other end had a weighted belt tied to it which was then placed in the water. Once in the water we finned over kelp towards the first cave, crossing a couple of gullies with a sandy bottom. This was a much bigger cave than the one at Duneen pier, perhaps 6m wide and with plenty of light. Only towards the back did the cave become dark and shallow and with little to see. At the entrance and inside the cave were massive boulders with many multi coloured anemones and starfish. The sidewalls of the cave were almost vertical and had various cracks and crevices in which we found crabs, prawns, squat-lobsters and one very small conger eel. After about 40 minutes of exploring the cave and with plenty of reserve air in case of difficulties, we headed back towards the slip. On completing our safety stop we found the rope and hauled ourselves up the very slippery slipway without problems.
On our second dive a few days later we decided to explore the gullies deeper than the 13m of our previous dive. The viz was any thing from 10 to 15m, improving as we got deeper. Along the vertical walls of the gullies we saw many sponges, not just the yellow boring ones but grey-green Elephant's Ear sponges and other red and orange ones also. We found a good-sized edible crab hiding in a hole with two entrances. Shining a torch down one made it wriggle towards the other and vice-versa. Eventually it emerged altogether and its shell was larger than my hand-span, about 8 inches. We let it crawl back in its hole as Irish law does not permit the landing of any shellfish except by licensed fishermen. We continued out and down the gully eventually reaching a gravely bottom at about 20m, although continuing to slope away towards the open sea. This small bay seemed to be a natural collecting point for jetsam as the bottom was covered in broken fishing debris including bits of rope, broken or sunk floats and so on. This did not seem to bother the fish though which also gathered there in numbers. We saw several shoals of larger fish which we could not identify. We retraced our dive back to the slip and again used the rope to exit. I found it much easier than the first time. It wasn't until I looked behind me that I saw John was having difficulty on the slip. This was because he was hauling up the weighted rope, my weight belt which had fallen off me accidentally, as well as himself and all his own scuba gear too. He made it though, despite having to drag 82 lbs of lead altogether. He was not amused.
All the dives we did were scenic dives with on the whole very good viz when compared to the North Sea. The viz at the Skelligs was exceptional with 20 m plus though we have been told that in better weather it can be up to 40 m. Due to the nature of the coast line sheltered dive sites can be found in the often changeable weather conditions.
Ballinskelllgs Watersports prefer experienced divers as dives range from 20 to 40 m in depth. There is no noticeable current but divers do sometimes need to wait their turn (up to 3-4 minutes) to be picked up by the boats which were handled expertly by Sean's sons Gary and Kevin. The water temperature was a fairly uniform 14 degC when we were there but in our semi-dry suits we did feel the cold after 40 minutes diving. Dry suit diving is preferable in these waters and depths. Swell can be a problem for those who are affected by motion sickness. It can also make the job of kitting up on the boat harder as well as getting in and out of the water. I managed to get on the boat in a dignified position just once in eight dives. Mostly I slithered in head first, bottom-first or in a crumpled heap depending on which way the boat was rolling in the swell.
The marine life was plentiful with lots more shellfish here than anywhere I have been to in the UK. The only exception were lobsters which are more plentiful off the North Norfolk coast. This dive holiday gave us an opportunity to see many species of marine life not previously seen and admire the as yet unspoiled waters. The people are friendly and we did enjoy going down to the pub for the stout, be it Gum-ness, Murphys or Beamish. We certainly recommend diving in this part of Ireland and we hope to be back for more, including more ice-cold smooth pure genius.
Frances Cook