Diving in the United Kingdom: Scapa Flow, rocky reefs and a lot of wrecks

When Germany surrendered at the end of World War One, its fleet was disarmed and brought to an enclosed reach of sea in Orkney. Peace talks dragged. Admiral Reuter, convinced the British were about to seize his ships, had them scuttled where they lay.

Most were later salvaged. Seven big ones were not. They sit in about 30 m of water in Scapa Flow and are dived regularly, a hundred years on, fragile and still enormous.

Scapa is probably the only dive area for which you would cross a border specially. But if temperate rocky reefs and wrecks are your thing, the rest of this convoluted coast will reward you richly, provided the weather holds.

Orkney and the north

Beyond the capital ships, Orkney has shallower wrecks and reefs, including sites along the Churchill barrier, the causeway built to link several of the islands. Much of British diving is like this: a country that traded worldwide by sea, plus the casualties of two wars, leaves a seabed littered with iron.

Many wrecks are protected, especially wartime ones that still hold the remains of those who died. Anything lifted from the seabed, where lifting is permitted at all, has to be declared to the Receiver of Wreck, who decides where it goes.

Working round the coast

The northeast is scenic and rocky, with shore diving around the Scottish and English border at Dunbar and St Abbs. Further out lie the Farne Islands of Northumberland: dolerite stacks and cliffs, birds and seals. At the Pinnacles, guillemots have been known to fish right alongside divers.

The Farnes have wrecks too. The Danish steamer Chris Christenson lies off the south tip of Longstone in about 30 to 35 m, the German SS Abessinia at Knifestone in 9 to 20 m, the Brittania on the Callers and the French steamship St Andre at Staple Island.

South of there the east coast flattens into sand and mud, with low visibility and few features for life to cling to, fed by the Thames, the Humber and the rest. Divers head miles offshore instead, to things like the Polish liner Piłsudski off the Humber estuary.

The Channel and the southwest

The English Channel is thick with wrecks, and the further west you go, the better it gets. From Swanage westwards the seabed turns rocky, and both visibility and variety improve. Swanage Pier is a shore dive beloved of macro photographers. Chesil Cove, at the southern end of 18-mile Chesil Beach, rarely goes past 10 to 15 m.

Offshore Cornwall and Devon hold the good stuff. Hand Deeps, 8 nautical miles southwest of Rame Head, is a cluster of five pinnacles rising to between 7 and 19 m, the central one climbing from more than 40 m, its walls carpeted in anemones. Hillsea Point Rock has a pinnacle split top to bottom, with a 15 m swim-through about a metre wide at 23 m.

Add the Eddystone Rocks, the Manacles off the Lizard, Fort Bovisand in Devon and the Isles of Scilly, and you have a season's worth without leaving the southwest.

Wales, the Irish Sea and the Hebrides

The Bristol Channel's standout is the protected island of Lundy. South Wales stays industrial until Pembrokeshire, where Martin's Haven opens up, and there is another cluster around Anglesey and Holy Island.

Further north, river run-off from the Mersey and exposed coast thin things out until the Firth of Clyde, which has many wrecks, and Lamlash Bay on Arran.

The Hebrides are clear of run-off and often wild, though there is shelter between the islands; the Sound of Mull is the popular example. St Kilda, 40 miles out in the Atlantic, can offer spectacular visibility if you get the day. Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man dive much like the Hebrides.

What you will see

Around Cornwall, basking sharks, blue sharks and seals, with the odd exotic visitor such as a sunfish. On the Dorset shore at Chesil you are into nudibranchs, dogfish, spider crabs, lobster, cuttlefish, pipefish and John Dory. The Farnes trade in birds and seals.

Temperatures and the surface

The Gulf Stream keeps British water diveable year round in calm spells, while places on the same latitude freeze. Nowhere in the UK gets sea ice, though inland sites can skin over in a cold winter. Southwest water runs around 16C in late summer down to 9C in late winter; Scotland sits a few degrees behind, around 6 to 7C.

It is the surface, not the water, that defines British diving. Boats are often rigid hull inflatables or small fibreglass craft with a cabin for the coxswain and maybe an electric jug. Operators advertise having a toilet on board, which tells you plenty. A windproof and a thermos earn their place in the kit bag.

The pattern in the numbers matches what divers find on the ground: calmest seas and warmest water from May through August, then the Atlantic depressions return. Southwesterly weather is mild and wet with gales; northeasterly spells bring cold, dry air and can blow a trip out just as effectively.

Practical notes

British waters have a big tidal range, with 5 m not unusual. Boat ramps, piers and shore entries dry out at low water, so the state of the tide shapes the day. Visibility on the western and southwestern coasts is variable and can swing from excellent to atrocious within days if the wind changes.

UK diving is organised around clubs, with groups running their own boats and gear, rather than resort shacks where you turn up with a credit card. Inland sites in flooded quarries and lakes fill the gaps when the sea is unworkable. The bigger ones worth a drive are Stoney Cove between Leicester and Coventry, the National Diving and Activity Centre at Chepstow and Capernwray near Carnforth.

If you are building a trip, the Wikivoyage guide is clear about where the good diving concentrates: Cornwall and the southwest of England, Pembrokeshire in Wales, the west coast of Scotland, and Scapa Flow above all. Pick one and give it a week, rather than chasing the whole coast.

Log your Scapa ships one by one and rate them, note the depth you hit on the central Hand Deeps pinnacle, and post your Chesil Cove nudibranch shots for the people still deciding whether to come north. Start your UK log at Scubaspot.