SCUBA October 2023 issue 139 | Page 31

PHOTO : OLEKSANDR PRYYMAK

Divers coming ashore at Malin Beg beach

PHOTO : OP boulders at the bottom . We soon found this was true under the water too .

The diving was reminiscent of both the exposed Atlantic end of Cornwall and the exposed west coast of Scotland - it had the jewel anemone-encrusted walls of Cornwall and the ruggedness of Scotland .

We dived the coast west of Teelin . There were some uncharted rocks , but generally we could be almost touching the cliff walls and still have 30m of water below us . There appeared to be no currents in the area , so we had no need to be concerned about slack . We found current only on two occasions – neither was strong and neither seemed to tally with other experiences , so might well have just been an expression of heavy weather .

I could only find one local guidebook , Underwater Ireland , which covered a

handful of sites . Peter and a knowledgeable local skipper , Paddy Byrne , provided us with a few sites , but the majority we dived were chosen from interesting looking areas on the charts .

We stayed out all day on the boat and visited a number of lunch spots including :

■ A stunning small beach under the 600m cliffs , which was only accessible by boat

■ Malin Beg beach , a beautiful sandy beach just about accessible by tourists but empty when we were there

■ Malin Beg harbour , a quaint and sheltered fishing harbour with friendly local fishermen who told us an interesting story about the navy blowing up a sea stack with gelignite

■ Glenlough Bay , which was really only accessibly by boat – and even then , only for people prepared to swim in !

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