St Abbs, Scotland, United Kingdom

Anemone Gardens

Anemone Gardens is one of the signature dive sites of the St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve, named for the dense carpets of jewel anemones and plumose anemones that drape the granite walls and gullies between roughly 12 and 18 metres. The site is on the eastern shoulder of the headland just south of St Abbs harbour and consists of vertical and stepped rock faces falling onto a sand and pebble bottom. Visibility in summer is regularly 8 to 15 metres, exceptional by North Sea standards, and water temperatures range from 7 to 14 degrees Celsius. The walls are covered with jewel anemones in dazzling pink, red, orange and white, plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, sponges and hydroids, with kelp forests of Laminaria hyperborea on the upper margins. Resident species include wolffish, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pollack, conger eels, butterfish, lumpsuckers, lobsters, edible crabs and the occasional Atlantic grey seal. Currents are weak inside the reserve and dives run from charter boats at St Abbs harbour.