home base harbour for diving on scottish west coast

BartW

BartW

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www.amptec.be
After last years exiting diving adventure in Cornwal and scilly's,
We have decided that this year our destination will be somewhere on the Scottish west coast.
Date is fixed from 3 till 10 september.

Now we are searching interesting places for diving or exploring with the boat.
Car ferry will bring us to Hull or Newcastle, and then drive to the home base marina on the west coast.

Just found some interesting dive sites around Oban, isle of Mull, ...
Anybody here with some advice on that area?
Or interesting places more to the south west of scotland, isle of Man, ....?
 
Had a visit to Mull last year and was based at Kerrera Marina, Oban which is an island but a free ferry only takes minutes to the mainland. This would be a good base for touring Mull which is stunning. Other possible bases would be Craobh Haven which has an excellent pub but is otherwise quite isolated or Dunstaffnage Marina whch is also at Oban. I've attached an image from Kerrera which shows another interesting aspect of this location. There is a Seaplane that tours from here to various locations on the West Coast and connects to the River Clyde in Glasgow. You may want to check out a recent episode of "Three Men Go To Scotland" on BBC which was focused on this area and can probably be seen on BBC iplayer. If diving is your sport, you probably could not pick a better location.
View attachment 9025
 
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Second Oban, Kerrera and Dunstaffenage... avoid Craobh ... nice place, but rip-off fuel prices. With a reasonable fast boat Jura (and surrounding Isles), Cuan sound, Mull, Staffa, Trechnich Isles (Spelling), Loch Sunart etc., will be within easy reach.
 
thanks for posting Guy's,
yes it seems that for the diving Oban is the place to be,

unfortunotly not so close to Hull, still some drive with the car and trailer,
but no worry, we have managed worse then that :)
any advice about the roads towards Oban ?


no interesting places more towards the south of scotland ?
 
Hi bart, have you thought about north east england and southeast scotland ,some fabulus diving around farne islands
plenty of wrecks tidal drift dives 50 miles from dfds terminal north sheilds also st abbs and eyemouth loverly clear water plenty of sea life launch facilities at sea houses and st abbs:):)
 
Hi Bluejasper,

We dive regulary in the nordsea, coming from the Belgium coast,
as this is probably similar to the UK east coast
thats why we had chosen the scottisch west coast for this trip

but we have absolutely no experience over there, so any advice is welcome,

do you live on the east coast ?, or do you have special experience in that area ?

thanks for posting
 
Hi bart,i live on east coast boat is in marina next to dfds terminal
have done 20 years of diving north east coast and west coast there is some good diving around the clyde big cumbrea and little cumbrea the viv there is generally 3to5 mtres depending on rainfall ,but oban ,mull ,isle of skye are in my opinnion much better .lauch boat at dunstafanage marina 45mins to 1hr to
tobamory or launch at loch aline and stay at the loch aline dive centre(you can rent old post office house or just stay in a room at dive centre stayed there many times)there are hundreds of dive
sites what ever the weather always some wear sheltered,and loads of loverly scallops.
 
we don't need a dive center,
we have all we need on board, including dive air compressor,

we prefer a nice marina with a parking place for a camper, as a home base,
interesting side seeing places in the neighberhood is a welcome extra

launch site or slibway doesn't need to be in the marine, we don't mind to launch the boat somewhere else
 
Hi Bart,

Just to point out if you need parking at the marina, Dunstaffnage at Oban would be a better idea as Kerrera marina is on an Island so parking is on mainland and a short ferry ride is needed. If you fancied an easier car Journey from your ferry then Kip marina gives good access to the Cumbrae etc as mentioned above. Oban is probably about 70nm (via Crinan Canal) from there by boat with plenty of marinas in between, but then that takes you a bit far away from your camper van in the car park.. I think it would be worth the extra trailing to Oban.

David
 
Bojangles said:
Hi Bart,

Just to point out if you need parking at the marina, Dunstaffnage at Oban would be a better idea as Kerrera marina is on an Island so parking is on mainland and a short ferry ride is needed. .....
Click to expand...

I am sure that they'd let you park near the marina on Kerrera ... Believe there is a car ferry crossing on South side of the Island. Car safe and not as expensive as Dunstaffenage.
 
Bojangles said:
Hi Bart,

but then that takes you a bit far away from your camper van

David
Click to expand...

we don't mind to launch the boat at one place,
leave my car and trailer in that marina,

and then some friends come on the boat, and some others go with the camper to our final destination / marina.
eventually swmbo could drive the car without the trailer, in case we need the car locally for side seeing of shopping

I don't mind doing a leg by boat in stead of driving a long distance with car&trailer on small roads.
 
Alf,

I've been told it is possible to cruise from Oban to Iverness, through the lakes,
or for you the other way round ;)

is that doable ?
how far, distance? time ?
 
Bojangles said:
Oban is probably about 70nm (via Crinan Canal) from there by boat with plenty of marinas in between,

David
Click to expand...


Hi David,

that seems a very interesting trip to do by boat :):):)
can you point me where the crinan canal is,
can't find this on google maps

thank you for posting !!!
 
BartW said:
Alf,

I've been told it is possible to cruise from Oban to Iverness, through the lakes,
or for you the other way round ;)

is that doable ?
how far, distance? time ?
Click to expand...

Think you've got a bit confused there. Theres the Caladonian Canal that goes through Lough Ness. But thats a bit higher up. Perfectly doable and crosses Scorland from one side to the other.
 
fantastic stuff Alf !
thank you very much for the pics, really interesting
just had a quick scroll, need to take some more time to investigate

I must have missed these threads when they were originally posted

I believe I need at least 6 weeks to explore that area in stead of one ;)

thanks again !
 
hlb said:
Think you've got a bit confused there. Theres the Caladonian Canal that goes through Lough Ness. But thats a bit higher up. Perfectly doable and crosses Scorland from one side to the other.
Click to expand...

thank you hlb,
good to hear that you are mending the boat again :)
hope you are well ! and best wishes !
 
BartW said:
Hi David,

that seems a very interesting trip to do by boat :):):)
can you point me where the crinan canal is,
can't find this on google maps

thank you for posting !!!
Click to expand...

Hi Bart, if you go on to google earth and enter "Ardrishaig" you will see the entrance to the Crinan Canal. You can then do a virtual tour thru the Canal, there are great stops along the way (if you have time). If you launch in the Firth of Clyde the Crinan is a shortcut to the West Coast avoiding the Mull of Kintyre. On the west side (where it exits at Crinan) you are about 20nm south of Oban, as Divemaster says, the Caledonian Canal is a further 30nm north of Oban. If you do Launch in the Clyde, it will take you about a day in a fast boat to travel up to Oban and a day to return which only leaves you 5 days of your week to explore the Caledonian and get some dives in around Mull... I think you should come over here for 2 weeks, come on it's worth it!! They don't call it "Bonnie Scotland" for nothing..

David
 
coincidently, today at LIBS I was at a big Scotland tourism stand,
and had a chat with 2 friendly people on the booth.
One was a yacht charter manager, and the other person, was the harbour master of the Crinan canal,
so I had a first class VIP introduction to the area. I was overwhelmed by the beautifullness of what they showed me.
and now I also understand all sugestions mentioned in the posts here above.

so now I agree that we have probably chosen one of the nicest cruising area's in UK.

and yes, plan is to drive to Kip marina, leave my car and trailer there, and going by boat through the Crinan Canal to Oban,
some friends will drive the camper to Oban and will unfortunotly miss this first beautifull boat trip.

When we return, we will probably cruise around Mull of Kintyre, avoiding the long delay from the 15 loks in the canal

and perhaps we might meet a famous Welsh forum mate over there :)
or another one coming from Iverness :)

We are really exited and looking forward to this trip !!!
 
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