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Ballyvaughan Scuba Diving Trails

Ballyvaughan village is situated between the hills of the Burren and the southern coastline of Galway Bay.

This village and small port is a convenient centre for exploring the fascinating surrounding countryside. It also has a lot to offer the visitor in its own right: sea fishing, pubs, restaurants, craft workshops.

The sheltered Ballyvaughan Bay is a great spot for all kinds of water activities, including scuba diving. Learn to dive with the Burren Adventures Dive Centre, details of which can be found below.

Burren Adventures Dive Centre in Co. Clare

Make this the year to learn to dive! At Burren Adventures we provide diving for every level - from complete beginner who would like to Discover the excitement of Scuba Diving, to full dive courses with internationally recognized qualifications. Under the guidance of a professional, new divers learn basic safety concepts, put on equipment and swim around underwater, in a closely supervised environment. The Discover scuba program can take place in the swimming pool or in the sea. You can opt to do a single dive or two dives in a day.

Ballyvaughan - Local Dives

Local dive spots include the following the Aushinish Drift Dive, Aughinish Shoal, Rebel Reef and Illaunloo Rocks.

Aughinish Drift Dive

This is an unbelievable dive with a current of up to 9 knots, superb visibility and a depth of only 9m. The dive site has a beautiful topography with everything from low lying reefs, strewn shell bottom and large kelp stalks. The pace of the drift varies depending on where the 2 sides of land come close together. Land is no more the 50 meters away on either side, during most points of the drift dive. The site is in a natural Burren setting with New Quay on one side and Aughinish Island on the other. The general visibility is minimum 10M. The site has an abundance of life, from Wrasse, Pollock, Mackerel, Giant Spider crabs, edible crabs, velvet swimming crabs including hermits.

Aughinish Shoal

This site consists of a reef running for approximately 2 miles north west, starting about a half a mile from the Aughinish cliffs, the life on this reef has to be seen to be believed and since it runs so far there are many different dives to be enjoyed and this still leaves plenty more to explore. The average depth 18-20m. Descending down the decent line will bring you to a depth of about 15m with the reef falling away to 20m. This is a vertical drop and as a result presents you with lots of over hangs and little gullys as breaks in the reef appear now and again. The reef is covered in beautiful sponges with a large array of crustaceans. If you love fish life and photography, then this has to be the most spectacular fish life dive in Ireland. Everything from large Wrasse (Full family), Large Ling, Big Pollock, Bib, Gobys, Blennys, Lobster, Squat Lobster, Conger, Trigger fish...to name but a few!

Rebel Reef

Similar to the Aughinish Shoal, it is a reef that runs for about half a km and in a depth of 30-32m. It sits out one mile off Blackhead and is an amazing dive. It has the appearance of being a flat sculptured overhang which is only 1.5 - 2m high with a sand/mud bottom. The life consists of lobster and conger every meter or so as you travel along! There is a great quantity of fish life present and the colours are amazing. The only draw back/restriction to diving the site is the Westerly swell. If the preceeding days have been messy it can be an uncomfortable journey from Ballyvaughan Pier, but general journey time will take 15-20 mins. It is recomended to dive on high or low slack, espically avoid mid springs unless you are happy to drift dive it.

Illaunloo Rocks

This site has it all. It is 8 minutes travel time from Ballyvaughan Pier and is the most perfect second dive of the day or extraordinary training dive. The site is a reef sitting just above the waterline on high spring tide. It is 13-14m deep on the north tip and has a series of fantastic overhangs. Some of them are so deep that you can easily fit a diver all the way in and still back out safely. Lots of beautiful sponges, big pollock, big wrasse, lots of shell fish with a flat bottom contour covered by broken coral! The best part of the dive is on the north eastern side...bring your camera.

There are a series of other beautiful broken reefs in the bay which the adventure centre regularly dives and of course an assortment of dive sites around by Blackhead travelling down to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher.

For more information contact the Burren Adventures Dive Centre.

Location: Main Street, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, Ireland
Web: http://www.burrenadventures.com/
E-mail: info@burrenadventures.com
Phone/Fax: +353-65-7077921
Mobile: +353-87-2020 880
 

Useful Links

Ballyvaughan Tourism http://www.ballyvaughantourism.com/