Links

Lochaline and the Dive Centre

The Ardtornish Estate Ardtornish House Gardens are open 1 March to 30 November, 8.00am to 8.00pm.

Conger Alley - The one stop resource for all things Scottish Scuba: they have plenty of information about scuba diving in Scotland, including many forums. If you’re looking for a dive buddy in Scotland, try the 'Looking for a Buddy' forum. If you’re interested in underwater photography and scuba video, or Photoshop techniques for divers, you’ll find a wealth of information and advice.

IANTD (International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers) has now been offering advanced diving training in the UK for seventeen years. IANTD was teh first agency in Europe to offer Nitrox and Technical Diver training, and have maintained their position at the leading edge of diver training, offering the widest variety of courses available anywhere.

The Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) is dedicated to advancing nautical archaeology - improving techniques in excavating, conservation and reporting; and to encouraging the participation of divers and members of the public at all stages.

Outdoor Explorers offer open and closed circuit recreational and technical scuba diving. Outdoor explorers, in association with Lochaline Dive Centre, can take you from a complete novice through to a trimix instructor! For further details, please see our courses page.

PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world's leading scuba diving training organization. With more than forty years experience, PADI training materials and services help you learn scuba, improve your skills or become a scuba instructor. For further details, please see our courses page.

The Scottish Sub Aqua Club provides background information about diving in Scotland, and provides links to dive reviews and other resources.

'Sea Spray' - Coast to Coast - the Dive Centre also has seaside accommodation in the East Neuk village of Pittenweem, Fife, close to some excellent dive locations on the East Coast of Scotland. The property is available through Scottish Country Cottages and sleeps 4.

The White House Restaurant: A highly acclaimed eatingplace offering excellent local produce, located just nextdoor to the Dive Centre Lodge.

Other charter boats: Lochaline Boat Charters have two hard boats - the Brendan and the Peregrine. The Silverswift, based in Tobermory, is also available.

Weather and tides

Please ask us if you would like advice on times for slack water on any of the sites in the Sound to help you plan your dive.

UK Home Office/Admiralty provides tides for up to seven days ahead without needing to pay.

National Tidal and Sea Level Facility also provide tidal predictions up to 7 days in advance.

South Scotland regional forecast from the BBC. Closest useful town forecast is for Oban (24 hour and five day, again from the BBC).

Dive groups

Zeewolf diving, Netherlands is a dive association based at Emmeloord on the North East polder, so are unusual in spending most of their lives below sea level! Zeewolf organise dive trips locally and around the world - and visited Lochaline in 2009.

Projects and programmes

Below are a few links to some interesting projects/ things that we are currently involved with, or have been involved with, over the last few years & beyond. They mostly have a nautical/underwater archaeology/wrecks theme. Hope you find them interesting!
(Mark and Annabel Lawrence, Lochaline Dive Centre)

Advanced Underwater Surveys (ADUS Ltd), is a spinout company jointly based at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee founded by archaeologists Mark Lawrence and Martin Dean, image specialist Chris Rowland, computer programmer John Anderson and businessman Aubrey Thompson. ADUS specialises in ultra high resolution multibeam sonar surveys for the assessment of shipwreck sites and has undertaken contracts for the Marine and Coastguard Agency (wreck of the Richard Montgomery off Sheerness in 2006) and the Ministry of Defence (wreck of the Royal Oak in Scapa Flow and the sunken Russian nuclear submarine K159 in the Barents Sea in 2007), and more recently salvage companies Mammoet and Titan on the wrecks of the California in Malaysia and the New Flame off Gibraltar in 2008 & 2009 respectively.

WreckSight is a new way of exploring shipwrecks in full 3D on your computer. High resolution multibeam sonar data is used to create very accurate 3D representations of the wrecks allowing the user to undertake a virtual tour around the wreck. WreckSight Scapa Flow Edition, with imagery of all the wrecks in Scapa Flow is now available online.

Rapid Archaeological Site Survey and Evaluation (RASSE) is a current two year project based at the University of St Andrews and funded by English Heritage to record and evaluate underwater archaeological sites using sonar and other remote sensing techniques.

Pandora expeditions The Pandora was the 24-gun frigate sent in search of the infamous Bounty mutineers in 1790, which was wrecked on the Barrier Reef on her voyage home. The wreck is regarded as one of the most significant shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere and has been the subject of a series of large scale expeditions by Queensland Museum. Mark and Annabel were part of the excavation team in 1998 and 1999.

Kravel expeditions The survey and recording of an early sixteenth century wreck in the Baltic under the direction of Jon Adams, University of Southampton.

Time Team Colossus (C4 series) the 74-gun British vessel Colossus fought Napoleon in the Mediterranean, but was lost returning to England with a cargo of Etruscan antiquities.

Time Team Kinlochbervie (C4 series) investigations of a mysterious shipwreck on the North West coast of Scotland, with its cargo of fine porcelain...

White Slaves Pirate Gold Timewatch (BBC2 series) investigation of a wreck in the Salcombe Estuary for which Annabel was the Archaeological Advisor. The programme explored the wrecks links to the shores of North Africa, and a history of kidnap, pirates and the white slave trade. (BBC news article - original link to program no longer available)

Wreck Detectives C4 series, programme on the Stirling Castle, one of the most complete wooden warships in British waters sunk in the Great Gale of 1703. The wreck of the Stirling Castle is one of the wrecks on which the RASSE project above is experimenting with sonar technology.

Extreme Archaeology C4 series, programme on Tintagel Castle.

Extreme Archaeology C4 series, programme on Chepstow.

Wessex Archaeology - as a one time Project Manager here, Mark was engaged in a number of maritime based projects funded by English Heritage via the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund, including 'Wrecks on the Seabed' and 'Englands Shipping'.

English Heritage Maritime - as part of this team until 2004, Annabel was engaged in modifying EH's functions (post the 2002 National Heritage Act) to include securing the preservation of ancient monuments in, on, or under the seabed, and promoting the public's enjoyment of, and advancing their knowledge of ancient monuments, in, on, or under seabed.

Save Ontario's Shipwrecks (SOS) A provincial heritage organization based in Ontario, and dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of an appreciation of Ontario's marine heritage.

SUBMAP the survey programme of an early submersible the Resurgam.

Monster methane sinks ships! - to be taken with large pinch of salt.

Search for Lochness Monster - to be taken with an even larger pinch of salt.

Mick 'Wildman' Pini - Mark was lucky enough to play drums for the legendary blues guitarist Mick Pini for a few years back in the early 1990's, supporting the likes of BB King during the band's European tours. Mick's latest album is 'Blues Survivor', and the album 'B.E.P - Hamburger Midnight' released in 2008 featuring Mick, Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada can be found on iTunes. Jimmy Carl Black, the original drummer in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, sadly died in November 2008 at the age of 70.

Diving around the UK

Links to useful resources for divers around the UK.

divesearch promotes British diving and conservation, offering a range of charter boats and accommodation around the British Isles.

Finstrokes is a forum that offers detailed information on uk dive sites, and reviews dive centres and other dive facilities. Their review of diving at Lochaline is available here.

Haynes Marine's experience includes an in-depth global background in defence diving capabilities, requirements, procurement and in-service support.

SubMission Dive School Stoke on Trent Staffs.