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Scotland Underwater: St Cats, Loch Fyne
The next in a series of blogs about Scotland Underwater from Ross Mclaren…
Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast is a sea loch probably most well-known for the incredible sea food that comes from it and is sold across the UK and Europe. At 70km long and with a maximum depth of around 200m, it’s also Scotland’s longest sea loch, which means… plenty of opportunity for diving.
Although maybe just pipped to the title of “Most Dived Loch in Scotland” by Loch Long just to the east, Loch Fyne is an ever-popular destination for divers throughout the country and even the UK. She may be slightly further away from the central belt and Glasgow than Loch Long, but it’s more than worth it.
Coming from Glasgow, you actually drive around the head of Loch Long, down her west bank under the shadow impressive Arrochar Alps before continuing to follow the A83 into the unbelievable Glen Croe. The views alone from the Rest and Be Thankful at the top of the Glen looking back on the road you’ve taken is worth the extra drive.
With twenty-two dives sites in the Loch (according to Finstrokes), I won’t even pretend I’ve dived them all, there is more than enough to whet the appetite of any and all divers.
Aside from Finnart (or A-Frames) on Loch Long, I don’t think there is another dive site in Scotland as popular as St Cats, on Finstrokes it’s listed as Seal Reef and some also call it St Catherines. The name might be up for discussion, but its popularity is most definitely not and once you’ve taken a wee dook underwater it’s easy to see why. With plenty of parking, and a pretty easy entry and exit point, it can be really busy during the summer months… but sadly, not just with divers! The good old Scottish midge also appears to very much appreciate the site as well and enjoys a wee buffet courtesy a la diver… you have been warned! However, the site is well worth braving our wee pests.
Now there’s two ways to dive St Cats. The “main” dive is straight forward to be honest. Once you’ve dropped beneath the surface head directly out from the shore you come to a “drop off”. It’s not a cliff per-say, but it’s a pretty obvious slope. At this point head down to around 8 to 10m and simply turn right keeping the incline on your right-hand side. This isn’t the main part of the dive, but don’t rush too fast, keep an eye out here for the odd dogfish hanging around the slope. Keep finning at about 10m and eventually you pick up the rocky reef. From this point it is totally up to yourself as to your depth. If you’re looking for a shallower dive simply keep swimming across the reef and take as long as you like looking under all the rocks, there’s plenty of life to find.
Now, I make no promises here, but the last few dive days we’ve had here has rewarded us with an absolutely magnificent lobster at the far side of the reef. Best way to find it would be to head down edge of the rocks once you first hit them to about 16 to 18m. At this point, swim straight across the reef until you come to the end of the boulders. There should be a rather large rock, with another propped up against it, and on the far side of it, at the bottom the home of Mr Lobster. But, be careful, the claws are big. If you’ve not found it by swimming straight across simply swim up and down the far side edge of the boulders and it shouldn’t be too hard to spot.
Personally, I always tend to follow the edge of the rocks down to steel wire which stretches right across the reef at about 16 to 20m, I’ve no idea what it’s from, but it makes for a really good navigation point during the dive. Most people tend to use this as the start of their zig zag exploration of the reef, but if you are looking for depth swim over the top of the wire and continue to follow the rocks down to your chosen depth. I’ve only ever been to around 40m, and although there isn’t much in the way of life, there has been fireworks anemone found at depth and even the odd cuttlefish/bobtail squid. I’m not going to lie; this is the one and only time I’ve seen one during a dive and being around 37m at the time I did wonder if I was narked. I still like a wee look down deeper just on the off chance I come across it again… cause you know, obviously it hasn’t moved in the past year or so… one can dream.
Regardless of the depth you chose the dive itself is the same. Simply zig zag your way back up the reef taking your time. The rocks are absolutely teeming in life and there’s very often the odd lobster hiding away. Once you’re done exploring simply head back to the edge of the reef, now keeping the slope on your left at about 10m again and the fin back for about the same time it took you to reach the boulders and your back to the entry point. It’s as easy as that!
Now, if you are looking for something a wee bit different there is actually a “wreck” of a speed boat in the opposite direction to the reef. Many people will give compass bearings etc. to reach it, but I’ve found the easiest way to find it is to simply swim straight out and down from the entry point and head to around 18 to 22m. From here turn left keeping the slope on your left-hand side. Have your buddy swim at around 17m and you at about 21m (if visibility allows for it) and simply start finning until you come across it. Depending on your fin strokes, you should hit the wreck after about 4 to 7mins. The detour from the “main” dive to visit the speedboat is well worth it. The “wreck” is pretty much intact, though the seats seem to have miraculously detached themselves, and is now home to scores of squat lobsters, anemones and at one time a rather large “Ling”. Sadly, at some point over the last year or so, we think, someone has used the boat as practice for lift bags and actually turned the whole thing 1800 and in the process it would appear they’ve scared off the ling, which I’ll be honest is rather infuriating! My suggestion for taking in the speedboat is to do this first, once you’re finished exploring the “wreck”, head up the slope to a shallower depth and then head back along it keeping it on your right hand side. This will take you back to the entrance, however if gas/dive plan allows you can continue along to the “main” reef and do a slightly shallower zig zag checking out the boulders once again.
St Cats/Seal Reef/St Catherine’s is probably overlooked by many of us divers who regularly dive the sea lochs. We can be guilty of passing it off as just a “good training site”. But, it does offer a lot for most divers and in fact, with it’s nice little beach and secluded parking off of the main road, also makes it good for non-diving friends and family as well. It’s often used by local clubs and groups as a small campsite for those who fancy spending the weekend.
For more from Ross, follow him on Instagram @underwater.ross and on Twitter @outdoorsross.
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In January The Scuba Place visited Ambon, Raja Ampat and Lembeh hosting a group of friends and divers, and what a blast they had! They stayed at some amazing spots and saw some amazing things! This is their trip report on their third and final stop in Lembeh.
There are well-known diving destinations, and then there are places that have a reputation on a level all on their own. For critters and all things small, weird, and wonderful, there is no place better known than Lembeh.
Lembeh is a small island sitting off the north-eastern coast of Sulawesi, accessed by Manado Airport, then an hour’s drive. Getting to Manado is easy –flights from Jakarta, a major international hub, are direct to Manado and Garuda Indonesia airline gives divers 20kgs of checked baggage plus another 23kgs for scuba equipment, free of charge! What could be better than that?!
Arriving in Manado is civilised – this is a sizeable airport and well-organised. Our baggage came out promptly, and we were met by our resorts’ drivers, popped into lovely, air-conditioned SUVs, and off we set on our journey to Dive into Lembeh. The first 30 minutes or so of the journey was on the new main road to Bitung – after having navigated the local traffic surrounding the airport of course. Then, we were in the hills and the rural landscape replaced the city buildings.
Passing through the final village, Kasawari, you soon arrive at the resort where a warm greeting from the staff, bearing cold flannels and a tropical punch, awaits! While we sat and chatted and drank our much-needed cold punch, our bags were swept away. We were then escorted to our rooms, and WOW! – they were beautiful!
The rooms are in three categories – Long House, Sea View Bungalows, or a larger Suite. The Long House is exactly that – a terrace of three rooms in one building and is set back in the gardens. The Long House rooms are twins or doubles and have a shared deck with views toward the sea. The Suite is an oversized room with a bedroom and lounge area and a huge open-air shower room.
We stayed in a Sea View Bungalow. They are at the front of the resort and overlook the water and a few are in front of the beautiful swimming pool too. Each bungalow has a canopy bed (king or twin configuration), a neat storage area with wardrobes and shelving, a day bed for extra storage or a third occupant, and a huge desk with power points with a stocked mini fridge below. There is also an indoor/outdoor bathroom with a walk-in shower.
The rooms are beautifully finished – authentic wood floors, walls, and woven ceilings and all the bungalows and the suite have their own deck to the front with table and chairs, plus the real surprise – a lovely Japanese-style style hot tub. This is, and trust us, the perfect place to sit with a cold beer after a full day of diving!
The swimming pool is beautiful, and the terraces surrounding it look directly over the strait to the island. If you get any downtime, this is the place to be! Or there is always the bar! The bar is in the central building together with a comfortable lounge area and of course the restaurant. Cold beers are plenty, but let the expert barman make you a cocktail – the Lembeh Mojito was superb! Imagine a normal mojito and add fresh lemon grass, fresh ginger, and chilli peppers … amazing!
This leads nicely into the food. – a very important part of any dive trip! There is, simply put, loads of it, and it is delicious!
The first breakfast is toast and cereals, juice, and hot drinks. This is available all day every day! The second breakfast is served after the first morning dive, and this is an awesome meal. A good blend of Western and Indonesian offerings, with eggs cooked to order. Manado porridge, a local dish of savoury oats was delicious, and supported by nasi goreng, mi goreng, rice noodles, waffles, pancakes, and good old bacon. Everything was cooked beautifully, and we were spoilt! Fresh fruit was plentiful and with numerous lime, mango and soursop trees on the property, getting your 5-a-day was easy!
Lunch started with the most amazing soups freshly made each day. Three or four main meal selections were served with rice, noodles, potatoes, and tofu – the choice was amazing and the food delicious. Dessert would be fruit at lunchtime and a more substantial offering, normally with ice cream, at dinner, following another amazing main meal!
The chefs are genius – the food is exceptional, and of course, supplied with a choice of hot sambals and chilli relishes ranging from the tongue tingling to the head-melting inferno versions only for the brave (or daft!). The highlight of our week was a hog roast – served with all the trimmings. We had guests with dietary requirements and vegetarian preferences in our group, and they were well catered-to.
After our afternoon dive, we were greeted at the dive centre with hot ginger and lemon grass tea or hot chocolate alongside donuts, cakes, or biscuits. Eat, sleep, dive, and repeat – it is a real way of life here!
The lounge and bar area are also a venue for some presentations. Our dive guide, Agust, studied marine biology at university and is a bit of a nudibranch specialist. He delivered a great 40-minute presentation on his favourite subject. And then Ben, the dive boss and professional photographer of international standing, gave an inspirational talk on creative lighting using torches. A few of our gang ditched their strobes and tried out some of the techniques Ben taught us with some exceptional results!
The camera room has rinse tanks and airguns outside, with personal cubby spaces and plenty of power points, towels, and storage – the perfect setup for underwater photographers and videographers. Between dives, you do what you need to your camera, and then pop it into a basket back in the rinse tank and it is automatically taken to the boat in time for your next dive.
The dive centre is as close to the water as you can get and provides each diver with space for a gear basket and plenty of hanging space. There are rinse tanks right next to the kit room, showers, drying racks, and plenty of benches for pulling on those wetsuits and boots. Your BCD awaits you on the boat, so absolutely no humping of kit anywhere!
The diving – at last, I hear you say! Sorry not sorry – the resort is amazing, and it needed to be said! Packages at Dive into Lembeh can be based on two dives a day or three. We say book the three-dive package – you will want to do every possible dive there is, and it is a little cheaper to book in advance than it is to pay for extra dives in resort. Nitrox is available in the resort ($7 per fill or $20 per day) and guided night dives are $35. Spend a few pennies and do a night dive! Octopus, bobbit worms, moon head sea slug, nebulose moon snail, stargazers, frogfish…we saw so much!!
07:30 is dive one, 10:30 the next, and then the third is at 230pm. The house reef is open all day in daylight hours too and is well worth a dive or three! From the boat, you drop in on muck, black sand, or a sloping seabed with coral bommies and then get your eyes into focus…. there is so much to see.
Lembeh is famous for critters – all things weird and wonderful and is well known for frogfish and various species of octopi. Every dive captures the simply amazing nature of the Lembeh Strait. We saw hairy, striated, painted, and warty frogfish of all shapes and sizes – from the smallest imaginable to the pretty huge.
We encountered mimic, wonderpus, reef, long-armed, blue-ringed, and coconut octopus. There are shrimps of every variety – emperor, Coleman, hairy, skeleton, harlequin, and tiger!
And crabs – porcelain, pom-pom, candy, and squat lobsters galore, including the amazing purple hairy ones you can find on barrel coral! We found scorpion fish, sea moths, Ambon scorpionfish, flathead and crocodile snake eels out hunting. And then nudis – hundreds of them! And seahorses and pygmy seahorses and and and and! The list is endless, and we will let our galleries do the talking, but it is safe to say that Lembeh delivered – in buckets!
The best dive? Getting to spend 45 minutes watching a coconut octopus decide on a new ‘house’ – a bigger and better shell than it was in, and watching it move from one to the other, and then disposing of the old shell by carrying it away from its territory! Just magical.
Our guides were exceptional and stayed with us from the beginning of the week to the very end, getting to know our diving styles and preferences and photography skills. Many of the guides have some experience with underwater photography and were happy to hold torches and make suggestions – underwater!! They tried their very best to deliver our bucket list and did so for one diver when they found a harlequin shrimp on our last dive! We were lucky to have one guide for every two divers and we are now ruined forever!
I know that there are those who like big stuff and colourful reefs, and I understand that totally – I am like that too. My first proper muck dive was a few years back in the Philippines, and I have been addicted ever since! The ‘yield’ is phenomenal in Lembeh, that being the amount of magical stuff that you see, and I would encourage everyone to give this a proper go. For photographers, macro lenses bring a little frustration at first and then great results – and using a strobe or a torch brings great colour to your photographs. For me, it doesn’t get any better, and I remain addicted to critters.
And Dive into Lembeh? I am addicted to this place too – it really is, quite simply, brilliant on all counts.
We’re heading back to Indonesia in January 2025 and will be returning to Lembeh after visiting Ambon and Triton Bay. Check out our brochure with full itinerary here. Come Dive with Us!
And our friends Anne and Phil Medcalf of Alphamarine Photography are hosting a Photography Workshop at Dive into Lembeh in August 2026. Click here for more information and drop us a line if you’re interested!
Key Facts:
- Getting there :We suggest flying with Emirates from Heathrow to Jakarta via Dubai. From Jakarta you can fly direct to Manado on Garuda Indonesia. We prefer Garuda with their free 23kg dive equipment baggage policy and the flight is 3 ½ hours. We were greeted at the airport and transported across the island in comfort.
- Air temperature : Lembeh enjoys a tropical rainforest climate – average daily temperature throughout the year is 29 to 31°C. The warmest and driest months are August and September and the wettest months are usually November and December
- Water temperature :An average of 30°C. A 1-3mm full suit or shorty will suit most.
- Visa requirement : We purchased our Visa on Arrival at the Jakarta airport for $35USD (or 500,000IDR) The visa for an initial period of 30 days. Make sure you have pristine bank notes if paying in USD or exchanged GBP when you get to Indonesia. The bills must be unmarked and undamaged to be accepted. The Customs Declaration must be completed online and the provided QR code is shown to the Customs officers.
- Currency : Indonesian Rupiah(IDR) or US Dollar are accepted most places. We exchanged Sterling for Rupiah at the Jakarta airport for an attractive rate.
- Electricity :230V with European style (round pin) two-prong plugs. Our room and the camera room had extension leads with UK plugs so no adapter was needed.
- Internet and Wi-Fi :There is wifi in resort and worked well in our room. We were able to email, WhatsApp and post on social media without issue.
Price Guide: Expect from £2499 per person based on two sharing a long house room for 7 nights with 18 Dives – 3 boat dives and night dives are offered daily, and the house reef is available during daylight hours. Full board basis with amazing food and includes flights and transfers. Extras : Indonesian Visa on Arrival, soft drinks and adult beverages, and tips.
Our Advice: Indonesia is an amazing destination. Dive into Lembeh was the last top on our three-centre trip and we felt it was the perfect ending to an amazing holiday!
Packing tips :
- Rechargeable fan(s) :If you’ve read any of our recent trip reports we recommend these over and over again. Perfect for warm planes, stuffy transfers and still evenings. We can’t believe we travelled without them for so many years! Join the fan club and grab one off Amazon… you won’t regret it!
- Travel laundry line : We find this comes in handy for any mid holiday hand washing and definitely at the end of the trip to hang SMBs, reels, dive socks etc.
- Insect repellent :We’ve made a habit of throwing some repellent in our dive bags every trip!
Sunscreen : Don’t forget to protect yourself when you’re in the sun and on the water!!
Come Dive with Us!
The Scuba Place designs and builds custom scuba diving holidays. With personal knowledge and experience diving in many of our destinations, there is no one better to help build your dream dive holiday. Come Dive with Us!
Call us at 020 3515 9955 or email at reservations@thescubaplace.co.uk
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