Plymouth Dive Sites
These dive sites around Plymouth include close to launching in the Sound, around Rame Head to Whitsand Bay and then offshore out towards the Eddystone Lighthouse. There are so many dive sites here that we have listed just a few of the options.
When we dive in Plymouth, we usually launch from the free slipway close to the Mount Batten Centre. Air is available here from InDeep.
The Fort (Breakwater Fort)
- Depth: 12m
- Type: Reef / Wreck
- Level: Sports diver
The Breakwater Fort sits just inside Plymouth Sound’s breakwater and is a circular stone structure with vertical walls descending to 12m. Sheltered by the breakwater itself, it can be dived when conditions elsewhere in the Sound make other sites unfeasible. The seabed around the fort is strewn with a remarkable scrapyard of debris from decades of underwater training operations, including a fishing boat, large tubular frameworks, pipework, and the remains of a decompression chamber. Dogfish, crabs and scallops are common residents, and a conger eel has taken up permanent residence somewhere in the structure.
Cannonball Alley / Crownhill Bay
- Depth: 14m
- Type: Reef
- Level: Sports diver
A rocky reef at around 14m in the sheltered waters of Crownhill Bay near Bovisand. The site’s most distinctive feature is a scattering of cast-iron cannonballs across the seabed. This is spent ordnance fired from the nearby HMS Cambridge shore gunnery range over many decades, now embedded among kelp-covered rocks. Visibility is generally good at 4–12m and the reef supports a healthy community of wrasse, crabs, lobsters and nudibranchs. A reliable choice in marginal conditions and an entertaining hunt for the cannonballs themselves, which are well camouflaged against the rocky bottom.
Read our reports of diving here:
Glen Strathallen
- Depth: 16m
- Type: Wreck
- Level: Sports diver
The Glen Strathallen was a 690-ton pleasure yacht built in 1928, later lent to the Royal Navy as an escort vessel and subsequently converted into a floating schoolship in accordance with the wishes of her late owner, millionaire Colby Cubbin. On 27 April 1970 she was towed out of Plymouth and deliberately scuttled off the Shagstone in 15–16m of water, the first vessel in Britain to be intentionally sunk as an artificial reef for divers, pre-dating HMS Scylla by 34 years. Although well broken up, the bow, stern sections, boiler and deck winch are all identifiable, and the 5m-high boiler is a focal point covered in anemones and a popular hiding place for congers. Part of the Nautical Archaeology Society’s Adopt-a-Wreck programme.
Mewstone Ledges
- Depth: 15-30m
- Type: Reef
- Level: Sports diver
Just ten minutes south of Plymouth Breakwater by RIB, the Mewstone is a dramatic island rising sharply above the surface and continuing underwater as a series of rocky fingers and gullies sloping gradually from 15m down to 30m. The absence of freshwater run-off means visibility is consistently better here than elsewhere in the Sound, and the clean-water conditions support prolific marine life, including dogfish, cuttlefish, thornback rays, plumose anemones and urchins. The gradual depth profile makes it ideal for progressively exposing newer divers to greater depth in a controlled setting, and it is a firm favourite for club evening dives and day trips when conditions further offshore are unsuitable.
Read our reports of diving here:
HMS Scylla
- Depth: 26m
- Type: Wreck
- Level: Sports diver
HMS Scylla was a 113m Leander-class frigate, the last to be built at Devonport Royal Dockyard, launched in 1968, which was deliberately sunk in Whitsand Bay on 27 March 2004 after its purchase by the National Marine Aquarium to create an artificial reef. The wreck sits upright in a maximum depth of 26m with the upper decks at around 18m. Since sinking, she has been colonised by bib, pollack, cod, wrasse, congers, cuttlefish, deadmen’s fingers and tube worms, making her one of the most biodiverse artificial reefs in the UK. Part of a marine conservation zone; therefore, no artefacts are to be taken.
Read our reports of diving here:
James Egan Layne
- Depth: 24m
- Type: Wreck
- Level: Sports diver
One of the most popular wreck dives in Europe, the James Egan Layne was a 120m US Liberty ship torpedoed by U-399 on 21 March 1945 while carrying US Army engineers’ equipment from Barry to Ghent. Taken in tow towards Plymouth, her stern section collapsed, and she sank in Whitsand Bay, just 540m west of where HMS Scylla would later be scuttled. She lies upright on a sandy seabed in 24m with her bow at 6–9m. The decking has mostly collapsed, giving her a canoe-shaped profile, with five holds containing railway rolling-stock wheels among the cargo. The port side carries dense sheets of white anemones, while a detached stern section lies to the south-west. Diveable at any state of tide, an SMB is essential.
Read our reports of diving here:
Hilsea Point
- Depth: 2-25m
- Type: Reef / Drift
- Level: Sports diver
Hilsea Point Rock consists of seven or eight granite pinnacles rising from a seabed of around 25m to within 2m of the surface. The outstanding feature is a split pinnacle forming a narrow canyon just wide enough for a single diver to swim through, lined with cup corals, jewel anemones and sponges. Slack water gives the best conditions for all grades, but a drift dive is possible after half-tide for more experienced divers, who can find themselves carried along walls covered in all five UK wrasse species, yellow branching sponges, yellow cluster anemones and, occasionally, monkfish and John Dory.
Read our reports of diving here:
Rosehill
- Depth: 29m
- Type: Wreck
- Level: Advanced
The SS Rosehill, formerly known as the Minster, was a 2,788-ton armed steamship torpedoed without warning by U-40 on 23 September 1917. She lies upside down in 29m and does not stand far off the seabed, with an adjacent reef frequently mistaken for the wreck itself. The most prominent features are the boilers rising to 24m, a stern gun, rudder, steering gear and part of the propeller, which are all clearly visible. A parallel reef running alongside creates a complex dive area, and the wreck is alive with fish, including cod, bass, pollack, and large congers and shoals of wrasse swirl around the boilers, and the plates are draped in sea fans and dead men’s fingers.
Read our reports of diving here:
Hand Deeps
- Depth: 7-55m
- Type: Reef
- Level: Advanced
Named by fishermen for five underwater pinnacles resembling the fingers of an upturned hand, Hand Deeps is widely regarded as one of the finest reef dives in the UK. The pinnacles rise from a surrounding seabed of 55m to within 7–19m of the surface, with sheer walls carpeted in thousands of jewel anemones in vivid purples, oranges, yellows and whites, dense sea fans, deadmen’s fingers and yellow sponges. Nine miles offshore and swept by clean Atlantic water, visibility is frequently spectacular. Schools of bass and pollock hang at the surface, cuckoo wrasse are characteristically bold and fearless, and the gullies and coves in the granite provide homes for congers and crustaceans.
Eddystone Lighthouse
- Depth: 0-40m
- Type: Reef
- Level: Advanced
The iconic Eddystone Lighthouse stands 19km south of Plymouth on a reef system that offers some of the finest diving in the south-west. The north side features shallow kelp-covered gullies accessible to sports divers, while the southern reefs drop to around 40m with pinnacles, boulder plains and white shell gravel that reflects the light and gives the site its characteristic brightness. Pink sea fans in far better condition than on more-frequently dived sites, schools of bass and pollack, friendly cuckoo wrasse and an abundance of crustaceans are all regularly encountered. Visibility can be exceptional given the site’s offshore location.
Hatt Rock
- Depth: 25-60m+
- Type: Reef
- Level: Technical
Hatt Rock is an isolated granite pinnacle some 14 nautical miles south of Plymouth, roughly six miles beyond Hand Deeps in the same direction as the Eddystone. The top of the rock lies at around 25m below low water level and then drops away in steps and ledges to depths well beyond 60m. The sides are densely covered in jewel anemones, plumose anemones and sea fans, with cushion stars and slipper lobsters in the deeper waters, a species not encountered at inshore sites. The isolation and depth demand favourable weather, a shot line firmly placed on the pinnacle, and divers with the qualifications and experience to manage both the depth and the remoteness.
