North West : New Direction
Award-winning underwater photographer Alex Mustard discovers the delights of Kinlochbervie , a new ( and very old ) location for frontier diving in mainland Scotland
I
’ ve always thought I had a good handle on the prime spots for British diving . My daydreaming mind tends to flit around the same dozen destinations , depending on the particular flavour I fancy . We all feel we know the usual suspects , popular because they reliably serve up the best of British , attracting clubs and buddies back to their favourites year-on-year . However , in the last couple of years a new name has barged right into the mix . And when I started looking at pictures and videos online , I became increasingly shocked I was only learning about it now . The place is Kinlochbervie , or KLB if you ’ ve had a few drams .
I ’ ll happily admit that I had to resort to Google to pinpoint it exactly on a map . Kinlochbervie is a small village in top-left corner of Scotland , just 12 miles shy of Cape Wrath , the northwest tip of mainland Britain . It ’ s rugged , untamed and remote , but what really got me excited about this place was the astonishing visibility , which reliably has to be the best most of us can drive directly to in the country . This summer while I was celebrating a solid 7-8m viz on the south coast of England , divers in Kinlochbervie were talking about 35-40m . And backing up these claims with pictures and videos , week after week . I had to see this place for myself .
48