Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom

Smalls Reef

The Smalls is a remote group of jagged rocks roughly 20 nautical miles offshore from the Pembrokeshire coast, marked by the Smalls Lighthouse, one of the most isolated lighthouses in the British Isles. The reef rises from a seabed of more than 45 metres to expose a complex of pinnacles, walls, gullies and caves accessible from a few metres below the surface. Because of the offshore location and constant tidal flushing, visibility frequently reaches 15 to 25 metres in summer, exceptional by UK standards. The vertical faces are covered with jewel anemones in vibrant pinks, reds, oranges and whites, plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, sponges and hydroids, and the area attracts pelagic species rare elsewhere in Welsh waters, including basking sharks and ocean sunfish in late summer. Other residents include ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pollack, bib, conger eels and lobsters. Currents are strong and tidal, and dives demand careful timing around slack water with experienced charter operators running multi-hour trips from Milford Haven, Solva or Neyland.