Furnace Quarry is one of Loch Fyne’s most intriguing sites, with a shipwreck and plenty of curious ballin wrasse, which will swim right up to you. The seabed is made up of rocks and boulders, presumably from the eponymous quarry. The maximum depth on this dive is 55m, although there is plenty to see at shallower depths!
To dive the bay, go down the 45 degree boulder slope to 15m and turn left. This is a good site for edible crabs, some bigger fish including dogfish beneath the boulders, and sleeping congers that curl up like cats to nap on the seabed here. Smaller wildlife includes most of Loch Fyne's regulars: squat lobsters, gobies, anemones, sea squirts, starfish etc.
The wreck of a small fishing boat, Bessa, lies below the pier at Furnace Quarry. She is known locally as 'the B200' as this appears to be the identification mark painted on her bow, although initial reports stated this as B2000. Bessa was registered in Belfast.
The wreck is a wheelhouse-forward fishing vessel of length about 12.2m. This vessel sank in 18m while secured alongside the south corner of the pier in summer 1998 and lay inverted, oriented roughly NNW-SSE. The wreck was not stabilised, being supported by a single radar mast (a simple tube) close to the edge of a steep drop-off. She slipped off the drop off and now rests in deep water, lying on her port side, covered in silt and shrouded in darkness.
To find the B200, go straight down the 45 degree boulder slope to the bottom and turn right. The wreck is 5m away at 43m. It is approximately 43m to the top of the wreck and 46m to the seabed. Her propeller is missing but the cathodic protector and power block remain intact. Her condition has deteriorated in the last decade; her wheelhouse has collapsed in, and some fishing line has accumulated across the hull.
Dive knives or shears and good torches are essential equipment on this dive.