This scenic wall is one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the UK, and is well worth a dive.
The sandy beach in front of Lochaline Hotel shelves gradually off onto a steep wall, offering contrasting environments and consequently a diverse range of life all in one dive. The shallow basin, with its sandy bottom and interesting marine life, makes a good training location for novice divers. This lagoon area bottoms out at 7m. Between 7-9m there is a narrow boulder and bedrock reef. Crossing over the reef, the bottom is again sandy with occasional boulders but slopes more steeply down to 15m. The wall itself drops from 15m to about 90m so it is a case of 'pick your depth'. Down to 35m the face of the wall is bedrock with sandy ledges and beyond that the bedrock becomes more irregular.
There is a wide variety of life at shallower depths but equally this wall provides a good opportunity for deep dive training and depth progression if required. Life includes nudibranchs, hydroids, jellyfish, starfish, sponges, soft corals, crabs, squat lobsters, shrimps, anemones and lots of fish. For further information on the life of Locahline Wall, please have a look at the results of this survey carried out by Lancashire Marine Conservation Society.
The wall is nestled between a working pier which is popular with anglers, and the Lochaline-Fishnish ferry route; divers must beware of entanglement in old fishing line.
