Tobermory, Scotland, United Kingdom

Sgeir Mor Reef

Sgeir Mor is the rocky reef in the Sound of Mull responsible for the sinking of SS Hispania in 1954 and is itself a fine intermediate dive in the Sound. The reef rises sharply from a 30-metre seabed to within a few metres of the surface, with stepped walls, gullies and a small pinnacle on the seaward side. The Hispania wreck lies just to the north and the two are often combined on a single boat trip. The walls are densely covered with plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, sponges, hydroids, feather stars and pink coralline algae, and kelp forests blanket the upper margins. Resident species include wolffish, conger eels, pollack, ling, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, lumpsuckers, lobsters, edible crabs and the occasional grey seal. Visibility is typically 8 to 15 metres in summer, with water temperatures between 8 and 14 degrees Celsius. Currents around the reef are moderate and dives are timed around slack water from Tobermory or Lochaline charter boats.