St Abbs, Scotland, United Kingdom

Cathedral Rock

Cathedral Rock is the most famous dive site in the St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve on the East Berwickshire coast. The site is named for a vaulted natural archway and tunnel cut through a granite outcrop, which divers can swim through at depths between 12 and 18 metres. Light shafts penetrating the arch and the dense covering of orange and white plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, sponges and hydroids inside the tunnel make this one of the most photographed dive sites in Britain. The reserve was the first community-led marine reserve in the United Kingdom and protects exceptional cold-water marine life, including wolffish, lumpsuckers, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pollack, conger eels and large lobsters. Visibility is consistently good for the North Sea, often 8 to 15 metres in summer, and water temperatures vary between 7 and 14 degrees Celsius across the year. Currents are moderate and dives are run from charter boats out of St Abbs and Eyemouth harbours. Cathedral Rock is suitable for AOWD divers comfortable in cold water with drysuits.