UKDIVING
Sule Stack
One of the bittersweet aspects of running a trip to these remote jewels is that , no sooner have you arrived and started exploring , it feels as though time is running out and you ’ re already planning the way home . We had been blessed with near-perfect conditions , so we still had options . In the end , rather than staying at North Rona , we turned back eastwards , intrigued to add Sule Stack to our collection of Outliers . I extend my apologies to North Rona and hope to make it back one day to remedy this oversight .
Sule Stack is , as our skipper dryly remarked , barely an outlier at all , being part of Orkney ’ s official district and a five-hour steam East of North Rona . However , it still has that distinctive feeling of remoteness ; a rock column that sticks out in the middle of nowhere , covered in the now-familiar white guano with its distinctive smell . The dive we did there was one of the group ’ s favourites of the trip . For some , this was in part due to the presence of wreckage , which was otherwise in short supply on this trip .
The cargo vessel MS Manina sank here in 1968 and there is plenty to explore around 35-40m , all covered in fluffy dead men ’ s fingers . I ’ m afraid my nitrox mix meant I couldn ’ t examine the wreckage closely enough for photos , but the clear visibility meant I wanted to - another excuse to return . In the meantime , there was plenty to keep me occupied in shallower water , with rivers of dahlia anemones , friendly lobsters , the ubiquitous catsharks , immense lion ’ s mane jellyfish and juvenile fish buzzing over our heads throughout the dive .
Our final dives were on the West coast of mainland Orkney and were also special . I ’ ll give a passing mention to caves , congers , tadpole fish , aggregations of jellyfish , and even diving puffins , curious to greet underwater visitors . I ’ d happily spend a week investigating that coastline too , but it would be hard to resist the further call of the outlandish Outliers , and even the most outlying of them all : Rockall . If I make it there , you can be sure to read about it in these pages .
Lesser cat shark and friends at Sule Stack 49