Above 18m - Weasel Loch

Weasel Loch is a sheltered sandy inlet with water 6m deep which cuts back into the 20-metre-high cliffs and ends in a sheltered lagoon. This area is ideal for training, but head out of Weasel Loch and fantastic walls and reefs develop, infested with marine life that thrives in the St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve. You will experience overhangs, caves and fantastic sandy gullies at this site and, if you also undertake the Cresta Run and Conger Reef just offshore, amazing house-size pinnacles and narrow winding gullies can also be explored. This is scenic diving at its very best.

Arrival at the site
As said, this dive makes a great shore dive, but it can also be completed by boat, which makes access to the site considerably easier. If you require food or drink there are numerous cafes and shops in Eyemouth, especially around the harbour, where you will also see the dive centres and the dive boats that Eyemouth boasts. Assuming that you are shore diving the site, access is gained via the Eyemouth Holiday Park, which is found up on the cliffs to the north of Eyemouth Bay. Parking is available right by Weasel Loch, but you require to purchase a parking permit from reception. This currently costs £3. Kit up and complete your dive brief at your car. You may be parked right beside Weasel Loch, but you are 20 metres above sea level. Access to the water requires a descent of a sturdy wooden staircase that takes you down to the edge of the lagoon. It’s not too bad a climb, but falling off a boat is easier.

Pre-dive briefing
You have a choice of dive routes and exit points at this site that can be tailored to match your experience. The standard dive is to head out from Weasel Loch and turn right at the end following the cliff around the headland to the only other exit point at Little Leeds Bay. There are two reasons why you may not wish to do this. Firstly will be your air consumption, and secondly the Little Leeds Bay exit point has no nice sturdy stairway. It’s a narrow path up the steep incline. If either of these points concern you, the option to fin back to exit at Weasel Loch makes sense. For more experienced divers a row of house-size pinnacles lie 50 metres offshore from the cliff. This is Conger Reef and a superb narrow gully winds between the rocks. This is the Cresta Run and it’s a beautiful site full of life. It can be a little tricky to find but, once you know how, it’s easy and I will explain how later. For the diver who is new to the site, I recommend completing Conger Reef and the Cresta Run initially by boat, as this enables you to explore this expansive site more fully.

The dive
Opting to complete the dive from Weasel Loch to Little Leeds Bay, surface swim from the lagoon into the gully and descend. The maximum depth here is 6m and you will land on the sandy sea floor of the gully. This runs out to sea for 100 metres. Run your fingers through the sand and shrimp and flatfish as well as dragonets will dart out in front of you. Only their movement reveals their presence. Keep an eye out for a small cave on the western-most wall of the gully. It’s full of brightly coloured squat lobster and leopard spotted gobies.

On nearing the end of the gully depth will increase to 9m and a boulder sea floor and kelp take over. You need to follow the east or right-hand wall here. After 20 metres or so a channel opens up and the wall starts to form. The kelp is left behind and above you as you fin along the sand at the base of the wall. Looking up, orange and white dead man's fingers cover the cliff face and make a spectacular sight in clear green water. Depth increases quickly to 15m. Visibility averages around eight metres but can be as good as 15 metres. Soon a large recess opens up at the base of the wall and it is here that you are likely to find the larger marine life that inhabits the site.

A good torch will help you look into the small dark caves where you can see wolf fish, conger eels and large lobster. After investigating this area fin further south and you will come to a spur of rock two metres high that sticks out at right angles to the wall. Follow this spur of rock offshore and you will fin on to Conger Reef. Continuing the dive to Little Leeds Bay you need to fin over this spur of rock. Depth increases to a maximum of 17m here where the wall turns at right angles and a beautiful sandy gully five metres wide opens up. This is known as Diver’s Hole and the walls here are covered in life.

Look out for Devonshire cup corals in luminous green and orange. Nudibranchs are common sights here too. Rather than finning up this gully you need to cross over it to continue the dive. Passing over five metres of sand the wall forms up again on the other side of the gully. Almost immediately the depth starts to shallow and sand is piled up into the mouth of a small cave that cuts back into the cliff face for around seven metres. Inside you can see squat lobster, velvet backed swimming crabs and in the hole at the very end there is usually a very large lobster in residence. On leaving the cave and continuing south, the depth continues to shallow back to around 9m as you arrive in Little Leeds Bay and continue to fin for around 200 metres until the exit point is reached and the climb back up the cliff can be undertaken.
Conger Reef and the Cresta Run.

If at the spur of rock mentioned earlier you decide to fin offshore, you will fin over a shallower reef and then drop down into 17m of water. In front of you will be two massive house-size boulders which rise a good ten metres off the sea floor. They are completely covered in dead man's fingers and they form part of Conger Reef. A gully runs between them but before you explore this look directly to your left. Here you will find a very narrow gully around two metres wide. This is the Cresta Run, which is a beautiful narrow gully that snakes along a narrow channel. It is extremely scenic. Edible crabs and dahlia anemones decorate the walls. This gully exits into a bank of kelp which makes it extremely difficult to find from its western entrance. Retrace your route down the Cresta Run and turn left to fin through the gully between the two huge boulders. Big schools of pollack are found out here and ballan wrasse flit about. Exploring the boulder on the right in a clockwise fashion will lead you on to further reefs and a patch of sand. This leads you into Diver’s Hole, from where you can complete your dive as mentioned above. If you get disorientated while diving around Conger Reef, finning south will bring you back to the main wall.

PADI COURSES
It is so scenic, I’d suggest the Underwater Digital Photography Specialty, and so you stay nice and warm, the Drysuit Diver Specialty is also worth having.

Other activities
Glass-bottom boat rides, amusements and arcades with ten-pin bowling. Seal feeding at harbour mouth, Superb castles to visit nearby up the Scottish coast and nice cliff top walks. Nice beach at Eyemouth Bay.
 

Sport Diver verdict
Weasel Loch is suitable for all levels of diver, making it ideal for a group trip with mixed abilities. There is so much to see, no one will be bored