Caithness Diving Club

Summer Isles
Hagar and I went to Old Dornie, on the Coigach peninsula north of Ullapool, last Friday for a dive weekend with Stirling SSAC. We launched the boat on Friday evening to take advantage of the tide and put her on a Visitors' mooring.
The following morning was rainy and breezy and the GPS/Sounder was acting up as well when we set off to Black Rock, which the Stirling group had dived before. It was a bit lumpy there so we headed in behind Tanera Beg instead for what turned out to be a very indifferent warmup dive on a mud and w**d bottom with not much life. I did see a number of big old scallops, though, which is a good sign as I think the site had been previously dredged. The afternoon dive was down a rocky, bouldery slope near Glas-leac Mor, quite scenic but not much life.
Weather on Sunday was lovely, but still a bit breezy. Plan was to dive the Fairweather trawler shipwreck in Annat Bay, across from Ullapool in Loch Broom. Without a sounder or a marker buoy, an open water shipwreck is usually a bit of a challenge but enter the Garmin/Navionics Boating App, which had the same map as the defective GPS, plus some bottom relief data and a sonar scan of the wreck itself.
The first attempt to get the shot on to the wreck using the App was not successful and Mark and Aine got a dive on HMS Vicinity instead. The next attempt was a resounding success, with the shot landing less than 1m from the hull and a good dive was had by the rest of the party. The wreck sits intact and upright in about 24m and every surface pretty much is covered in plumose anemones.
After a picnic lunch on Isle Martin, we dived a site called 'Waterfall', a wall on the mainland opposite Isle Martin. The wall dropped vertically into the black in places and was quite dramatic but didn't have much life on it.
Monday weather was also lovely for dives on Black Rock and Priest Island. I had to abort the Black Rock dive as my suit dump valve would not operate but managed the last dive on Priest Island. This was the most 'abundant' dive, with lots of colourful life. Unfortunately, I was totally stressed during the dive as my harness weights slipped to the front which made me keep on going face down and this persisted on to the surface, which was a bit unsettling. We had to can the last pair's dive as we had arranged assistance from a nearby fish farm to recover the boat up a gravel beach as two fishing boats were on the public slipway. Overall, a great weekend, good company and good crack. A possible future Stirling SSAC expedition to Caithness was mooted.....

Holborn Head Dive
Nice dive off Hagar towards Holborn Head with Greg Benson and Josef Vaca, kindly coxed by Diver Edmunds The heavy seas on Saturday had died away completely and we launched at the Yacht Club slip at the top of a big spring tide. There was, as expected, quite a strong current running towards Holborn Head so the dive was pretty effortless. We started where Maurice usually has his mooring and ended a couple of hundred metres north of the Head. Sea temperature was still low (8C) so not a great amount of life yet. There was no plankton but quite a lot of suspended matter due to the previous rough conditions. The new boarding ladder did the job!

Rhu Corrie Dive, 24 August 2025
Original plan was to dive Strathy Point but we were just a little late to be sure of an easy recovery at Portskerra. Plan B was Rhu Corrie which was lovely, as usual. At one point we had 8 divers in the water - Diver Edmunds, Mike Russell, Richard Guest, Geoff Harris, Greg Benson, Josef Vaca, Duncan Simpson and myself. This hasn't happened in a while!
The vis was a little less than perfect due to general movement just outside Rhu Corrie. Conditions remained perfect for recovery and the midges stayed away, in spite of the calm conditions.

Red Head Dive, 23 August 2025
Josef Vaca joined Geoff Harris, Richard Guest and myself for a dive at Red Head, about a mile along the coast from Holborn Head. There was a bit of movement in the sea but otherwise conditions were perfect with little or no current.
There was a great abundance of encrusting life and plenty of fish, large and small when Richard and I went down. The dive was a bit shorter than planned due to Richard's mask starting to flood uncontrollably.

Duncansby Geo, 22 August 2025

Lovely dive with Geoff Harris and Richard Guest in the Geo. Perfect sea conditions, masses of life and a high spot in the form of a HUGE shoal of small fish in the big cave. They put o a 'Blue Planet' bait ball show which I even managed to video.
When we got back to Groats, not enough water to recover Alice - Doh! Home for tea and then we recovered her in the failing light in the evening.
The Geo never disappoints!

Holborn Head (Thurso Bay Mooring) Dive, 27 July 2025
Conditions were nigh on perfect in Thurso Bay today for a dive from Hagar at Maurice's mooring. We were tied up just after HW and it was clear on the surface that there was a bit of current running north. This was confirmed by the floating clag in the water moving past the mooring line on the way down, but it wasn't so bad on the bottom. Or so we thought.....
Plan A was to head north with the current for 10mins then turn round but after about 7mins it was clear that the bits of w**d were rolling past like tumblew**d in a western movie so we turned round then. It was hard work getting back to the mooring and a little bit past it before having a pleasant drift back. It was a shame the current was so strong as we were just reaching the more scenic part of the dive to the north when we had to turn.
Lots of life everywhere, lovely light on the bottom and good visibility (the 16m bottom was visible at the surface) and nobody parked on the slip added up to a good day out. Rehydration at Popeye's rounded things off nicely and I even managed to reverse Hagar into the Clubhouse after she had been washed down.

Aase, 13 July 2025
13 may be unlucky for some, but July 13 was a lucky day for Josef Vaca, Fiona Houston, Ronnie Scrymgeour and myself. Weather and tides were nigh on perfect to have a pop at diving the SS 'Aase' at Brims Ness. For those who haven't dived the wreck, the 'Aase' came ashore at Brims in dense fog and a southerly gale on the evening of 16 March 1928. The ship was carrying scrap from a dismantled railway system and pretty much all that remains is the cargo, principally railway lines and bogies + wheels. Of the ship itself, nothing much seems to have survived (Brims is a VERY exposed site!). the last set of pictures I took at Brims were in 2016, probably the last time I dived there and we have tried a few times since
We launched Hagar at the Yacht Club slip (trailer brakes and bearings worked beautifully!!) and headed round the Head to Brims where, in spite of the calm conditions, there were still a few (smallish, plus one surprisingly big) waves breaking at the Ness. Conditions at the dive site were pretty well perfect, though, with only a very slight surge coming ashore.
Ronnie and Fiona went in first (I had dropped them a little shallow, but they found the wreck site ok) and had a relaxing hour or so among the railway lines and bogies. They left an SMB reel attached to a bogie so Josef and I dropped straight on to the wreck. for a further relaxed dive. Water was a toasty 12C
That's the good bit. We got back to the slip to find that no less than THREE fecking cars were parked across the top of it. Scrabster beach was busy, so we reckoned we had little chance of finding the owners. The Harbour slip had a friendly barrier across it (and the tide was probably to low anyway, plus it is a sod to reverse a trailer round that corner). Thurso Harbour slip was unuseable so we had no choice but to recover at Dwarwick (with no problems - lovely slip).
Back to the Clubhouse and what do we find - a fecking red Jaguar parked opposite the roller door! (It wasn't anything to do with Sean next door - he had left the area clear for us). No chance of reversing in so we had to unhitch the boat and manhandle it so we could winch it inside after washing it down.

By this time, we were all feeling a bit put upon, so it was off to Popeye's for some welcome rehydration. When I was driving out of Scrabster, I noticed that there was ANOTHER, different vehicle, with paddle boards on the roof parked across the top of the slip. To be fair, this is the first time we have been blocked like this, but I think I will make a sandwich board 'Keep Clear, No Parking' sign to place on the slip, certainly on nice days like today. Overall, definitely worth getting out of bed to go diving today. It would be great to dive the site March/April when there is no w**d, but the chances of a calm Sunday at that time of year are pretty slim.

Skerray, 19 May 2025
Diver Edmunds, Mike Russell, Martin Gill and I met up at Skerray harbour at 10am on Monday, but, as they say, 'the best laid plans gang aft agley'. There was nothing like enough water in the harbour to launch Alice, so we had a bit of a wait until the tide flooded a bit more. It had been a while since I launched at Skerray so it was a flaff to get the boat manoeuvred on to and down the slip.
Once Alice was launched, we set off hoping to dive the Trench at the top of Eilan nan Ron but there was too much surge at the seaward end. We dived outside some caves on the SE side of the island instead. The plankton had really bloomed in the last few weeks and the water was quite soupy with life, all the way from suspended algae to fish fry, making the visibility only moderate. Plenty of encrusting life but not much in the way of larger swimming life and nice underwater senery made for an enjoyable dive.
We had to can the second dive as the tide had already turned when we got back to the harbour and there would not have been enough water to recover the boat. A relaxing lunch had to do instead.
The promised sunshine pretty much failed to materialise, alas.